Merkiaari Wars: 04 - Operation Breakout Page 6

  “Sure, Skipper. Grunts can be fun.”

  Colgan laughed and headed for the boat bay.

  * * *

  4 ~ Betrayal

  Officer Country, Petruso Base, Snakeholme

  Betrayal wasn’t a word that Captain Kenneth Stone, 501st Infantry Regiment, considered very often or associated with himself, but he did so now as he studied the woman in his bed. Kate Richmond, late of Bethany’s World and former ISS operative for that world, would see it that way. He knew her as he knew himself and from her point of view he had betrayed her the moment he learned the news and kept it from her. No matter he did it for her own good, she would not forgive him. He tried to tell himself it didn’t matter as he watched her sleep, but it did. This woman mattered, and that was a problem.

  He’d managed to live this long by putting emotion aside whenever it suited him. He could suppress that side when he needed to, the Human side. He was convinced that was a big part of how he and the other veterans had survived so long when their brothers and sisters in the regiment did not. He could switch his humanity off when the need arose. In fact, he’d rarely switched it on during the years following the war. He hadn’t seen a need. Most of those years were spent on missions building his intelligence network for the General, and they’d required him to do some questionable things for and to people. His machine persona, the real him, was better for that. He was a hard charging fighting machine, with heavy emphasis on machine. That was his way of coping. He just put it away like a computer filing reports, never letting it touch the dwindling Human side.

  He grimaced. Self-pity now? He hated self-pity. It was the most useless emotion of all, and he wouldn’t let it take up residence in his head or his database either! At least when he turned off the Human Stone he could be certain of the choices he’d made. No second guessing then. Just rock solid logic from machine Stone. Scenario A happens, respond with Scenario B. Richmond learns of his betrayal and tries to kill him, he kills her and moves on to the next mission. Just add her to the multitude of his victims, and keep on keeping on.

  The stab of pain the thought gave him was very real, and he winced. The thought of her dead hurt him deeply. Her dead by his hand... god no, not again. He forced himself not to think about it. The ghosts he carried around with him every day had enough weight to crush him as it was. Thinking along those lines threatened to call them up and drown him in memory.

  No!

  The scream in his head worked. No memory files opened, and he took a shuddering breath. No, he would not look back at his victims. Instead, he would look ahead and find some way to fix this. He was good at fixing things. It was his best thing… after killing of course. He was like Richmond in that way. Two peas and all that. Both of them were excellent killers. His preferred targets were Merkiaari, and he would never pass up an opportunity to increase his score. Richmond was more egalitarian, not discriminating between Human or alien. Anyone or anything that got in her way was fair game. He could admire that as long as she channelled it to the regiment’s benefit, despite the likelihood it would be aimed at him shortly.

  He studied her face as she slept the sleep of the righteous. Her heavily scarred face and missing eye did not repulse him. They were just a part of her. Her fierceness was absent in sleep, and the sneer the scars forced upon her lips seemed lessened. She sighed and kicked the covers down a little, revealing one pale breast. His eyes shifted, he couldn’t help it, and he zeroed in upon that enticingly puckered nipple. He grinned like a little boy as his targeting reticule locked on and spun pulsing redly centred upon that pink jewel. Pulsing like another part of his anatomy that had stood up and taken notice. He forced himself to look back up at her face, and not see her pale naked perfection riding him as she had last night. His obsidian skin against her ivory... God damn! She was in his head and under his skin. He was fucking doomed.

  Her victims, and she had many of them, didn’t weigh on her as his did upon him. She was borderline sociopath according to Marion, but he didn’t think so. He had known a few in his time. If she’d truly been a psycho of the kind Marion thought, Richmond wouldn’t care about her brother as much as she did. Her cock sucking brother. It all came down to that worthless pile of crap. If not for him, he wouldn’t be standing here getting ready to betray Richmond.

  He was going to fix it, but it depended upon a few things that he still needed to arrange. One of those was getting Richmond out from under foot for a few days. A week would be better, and he might be able to swing even that with Marion on his side. The General would be a problem, but there was a way to get around even him.

  I can fix this!

  “Richmond,” Stone said, deciding that if she caught him ogling her it could only make matters worse. “Wakey wakey, Lieutenant.”

  Richmond’s good eye opened, and that pale blue blazed with her fierce intelligence. She smiled and stretched her arms above her head, her legs straining making the covers slide all the way off the side of the bed to reveal her naked glory to his hot eyes. She did it on purpose of course, posing there for him, laughing silently at his interest. ISS training or simply a woman’s power over men he didn’t know or care. He wanted to strip and join her in his bed right now, but the thought of his upcoming betrayal kept him standing there.

  “Morning,” she purred. “You’re up early.”

  “No, you’re up late. It’s 0700. You need to get dressed and over to medical. Today’s the day.”

  Richmond propped herself up on her elbows. She was so beautiful. He was sorely tempted to confess all right here and now. He forced himself to turn aside and pick up her battle dress blacks from the chair. When he turned back he had his emotions under control. He had switched them off, and it was machine Stone who regarded her coolly now. He offered the uniform, but she waved it aside.

  “Shower first... and god, get me a coffee would you?”

  “Coffee yes, but no eats. Medical needs you fasting for their damn drugs.”

  “Yeah I know. Enhancement take-two is supposedly no different to enhancement take-one,” Richmond said heading for the bathroom. “How would they even know, huh? I’m the first to need de-enhancing.”

  “De-enhancing, right. When they wake you up you’ll be fully operational again. No easy system by system start up for you this time round. Straight to the finish line.”

  “Thank god for small mercies. I can’t wait to get back on the horse.”

  Stone watched that magnificent butt flex as she walked, and forced his brain not to leak out of his ears. He had a mission to perform. He programmed the autochef and moments later brought the mug of coffee into the bathroom. Richmond was standing under the jets, letting the hot water pummel her. He watched her in silence. Her eye was closed, her head tilted up into the spray. Water beaded and rolled down her chest, over her flat belly, and down those muscular thighs.

  Stone cleared his throat and offered the cup.

  “Thanks,” she said and drank. “Damn, I needed that.”

  Stone nodded and forced himself to about face. He couldn’t maintain his composure if he stood there watching her any longer. He went into his living room to wait, and tried to think about the mission. He would need help on this one. Richmond would need backup when she learned what he’d done and no longer trusted him. Fuentez was his first choice, but she’d only been back a few weeks from the Kushiel op and was still working with Liz under The Mountain. As he understood it, she was only present as moral support during Sebastian’s installation. It boggled the mind that an A.I needed or wanted moral support, but Sebastian had requested Fuentez be present during the process. She was just an observer. She didn’t have an engineering or computer science background, so it shouldn’t be a problem for Liz if he shanghaied Fuentez. He hadn’t visited the Oracle facility before, but he would have to go there if he wanted her to help with Richmond. That wouldn’t be a problem; any viper had access to The Mountain. The regiment’s archive was there.

  Five minutes went by and Richmond eme
rged from the bathroom. Stone was reviewing the data he’d been suppressing, and ignored her as she moved around the room locating her clothes. They had been a little, ah... amorous from the moment they entered his quarters last night and their clothes had been scattered all along their route to the bedroom. She didn’t disturb him as she pulled on her uniform and sat on the couch to lace her boots.

  Stone went over the data, rearranged a few things for ease of uploading to the General, and closed the file. He’d massaged the data as far as he was willing to. He wouldn’t falsify anything that could come back to bite the regiment on the arse, but he had put more weight on certain aspects while trivialising other parts in an effort to lead the General to the conclusion that he needed him to reach. He didn’t know yet how he could rope Fuentez into it, assuming she was willing, but he would come up with something. He always did. Maybe Eric would just order her to go or ask her to volunteer if he asked him. Probably would, but he’d want to know why. Hmmm...

  “... you want to come with?” Richmond was saying.

  Stone checked his log. He’d missed her asking about his plans for the day. “I have a ton of reports to go through, but I’ll deliver you to the tech centre. Wouldn’t want you to get lost.”

  Richmond snorted. “Don’t you worry about that. I can’t wait to get back in business. It sucks dinoballs walking about in this gravity with only one peeper.”

  He grinned. It still amused him hearing retro coming out of her mouth. Reminded him of days long gone when he’d run with the Breakers—a gang he’d belonged to during his misspent youth on Forestal. He was born there and the planet still held a few good memories for him, but that was long ago. He owed his military career to the Breakers in a way.

  His bashing days had led him into the darker side of Forestal’s underbelly first as a courier and later as a cleaner. Cleaning up problems for the gangs, making people disappear, and enforcing for the smaller outfits had led him deeper and deeper into the dirt. He’d been getting a little old for the life when everything changed. Younger competitors were always looking for ways to break in, and he’d had a few near misses, but he finally got caught by the police red handed with a body he couldn’t explain and the weapon he’d used in the car with him. Stupid. He would have suffered mind-wipe if not for the war.

  The Merkiaari had been a shock everywhere. Individual planetary governments had responded slowly but in general they did do the right things. On Forestal the government increased its ground forces with a forced draft, and the first people recruited were convicts. He hadn’t needed force. Mind-wipe or five years in the army? He couldn’t sign fast enough. He’d barely been out of boot camp when he was deployed against the Merkiaari and found his calling. Killing murderous aliens intent upon genocide made him feel like a hero. It had made him proud. For someone like him that was a big thing. It pulled him out of the slime to breathe clean air for the first time. He worked with people who had never had to fight and kill others like him just to put food on the table, and he liked them! He risked his life for them, and they did the same for him. Complete strangers became like family.

  And then the Merkiaari hit Forestal itself and everything changed again.

  Stone shook his head and saw Richmond watching him. “What?”

  “Lost in thought?”

  “Yeah, thinking about Forestal. Did you know I came from there?”

  Richmond shook her head. “I don’t think you ever mentioned it.”

  “It was a long time ago. I don’t really think about it anymore. Everything is so different there now. I’m different. Nothing in common I guess. You would probably like what they’ve done with the place.”

  “But you don’t?”

  He shrugged. “It’s not for me to say how they want to live, but I remember where the money and fancy tech all came from. They built all that on blood and dirty money, and then lied to themselves about it. The corporations aren’t so far removed from the old days as people like to think. They still fight their little cyber wars, and they’re not so little mercenary armies still bleed and die for them in the shadows. But on the surface, they’re clean and shiny. Hell, the average citizen on Forestal can live his entire life and never see the underbelly. I suppose that’s something positive.”

  Richmond finished fussing with her eye patch. She stood and pulled on her beret. He did likewise and together they left his quarters. Officer country was busier than it had been in years gone by, but they were a little late this morning and had missed the crush. Burgton had been ruthless with his changes to the regiment upon his return from the Shan operation. All of the veteran non-coms had been promoted to officers against their wishes in all cases. Stone was now a captain of all things. He didn’t feel like one or want to be one, but when the General wanted something it happened one way or another. It wasn’t worth fighting over. It wasn’t as if he was expected to run a company, and even if he were, he knew he could do it if he had to. It was more about appearances, Stone figured. With new recruits coming on-line, often with rank in their backgrounds, it was easier teaching and commanding them from positions of authority that they instinctively respected. Stone supposed a new recruit who’d been a captain in his old branch might find orders from a mere sergeant a little hard to swallow.

  Anyway, being a captain commanding OSI (Office of Strategic Intelligence) wasn’t much different to the way he’d done things before. It was more official looking this way, and he had resources all budgeted to look good should the DOD (Department of defence) pry into the regiment—a distinct possibility now that the 501st was officially on-line again, but his agents and sources throughout the Alliance were still the same people. His staff, like Kate, all had security backgrounds. Every one of them could take care of business in the field when the need arose. Having them as backup freed him up. As he’d said to the General when pitching the need for proper intel weenies of their own, he couldn’t be everywhere at once. What if his luck ran out? Who would take over? He glanced at Richmond marching by his side.

  She will.

  They entered the tech centre and made their way to medical where Richmond’s team of doctors waited. There were five of them; she was a bona-fide viper research project these days. So okay, she needed to be repaired, and the doctors never forgot that her life was in their hands, but the process used would be adapted in the future for other situations. The project was a huge deal to the regiment. For example, upgrades. Software upgrades were relatively simple things, but actual hardware upgrades never happened. The procedure was just too invasive and complicated. Not to mention dangerous. Risk of brain damage had been considered too high until now. If things worked out for Richmond, older vipers like him could have their computer systems replaced bringing them up to date with the newest vipers to come off the assembly line. It wouldn’t suddenly turn a MK1 into a MK4, but it would close the gap by a significant amount. Increased processing power wouldn’t make him physically Richmond’s equal—she was stronger and faster with greater acceleration—but it would let him acquire and service targets as quickly and as accurately as she could. His sensors and ECM would benefit enormously as well.

  “Okay,” Stone said. “One busted viper delivered as ordered.”

  Richmond snorted.

  “Thanks, Ken. I’ll take it from here,” Marion said. “You ready for this, Richmond?”

  “More than,” Richmond said. “Make sure you get the eye colour dead right. I don’t want any screw ups.”

  “Eye colour is the least of your problems.”

  “Easy for you to say, you won’t be the one looking in the mirror at them tomorrow. They better match.”

  Marion glanced at Stone. “About that. We’re going to take this extra slow to monitor and document things. You’re the first to undergo the procedure, and we want to be able to tweak the process on the fly if we have to. We’re estimating five days to a week before you’re up and around.”

  “A week! Are you shitting me?”

  Stone grinned
.

  “No,” Marion said primly and glared at Stone. “It will be about that length of time. Just an estimate right now.”

  Stone nodded almost imperceptibly to Marion in thanks.

  Richmond scowled and the scars turned her face into a horrifying mask. “Well, damn.”

  “Don’t sweat it,” Stone said. “You’ll go to sleep and wake up fixed. You won’t notice the delay.”

  Richmond grumbled something under her breath, but nodded and allowed herself to be led away. Marion stayed behind.

  “You better be right about this, Ken.”

  “I am.”

  “She’ll kill us both if it goes wrong.”

  Stone shrugged. “She has nothing on you. If she kills me, at least you’ll know I deserved it.”

  Marion looked sharply at him. “You’re doing it for her.”

  “That won’t matter,” Stone said and turned to leave.

  “Ken?”

  He stopped to listen, but gave her his back. “What?”

  “Don’t let her kill you. Richmonds come and go, but there’s only one you.”

  Stone chuckled. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.” He walked out.

  Marion’s opinion of Richmond wasn’t a surprise. She had never liked her and still considered her borderline psycho. He doubted anything would change that. Marion hated Bethany and anyone coming from there. She had her reasons, but she would never let herself act upon prejudice. Being a shrink allowed her to analyse her own motivations and make allowances. No, they would never be friends, but they didn’t need to be enemies either. They were vipers and that made them family. They weren’t close family, that’s all.

  Stone’s next stop was the General’s office.

  He entered the outer office and the General’s adjutant, Raph Robshaw, looked up. He glanced at the clock on the wall and then down at his comp with a frown. Stone could read him like a compad. Raph was wondering if he’d screwed up the General’s diary somehow.