Gods Dogs, Book 3

Force and fraud are, in war, the two cardinal virtues.

Thomas Hobbes

The League negotiators had been pleading their case for two weeks by this time, and the audio feeds River planted in the corporate offices let the team know the company was now joking about the League’s failing efforts to extradite their bosses.

Security was tight but relaxed, and the eight members of the executive committee made regular appearances at their offices on the fourth floor.

Their conversations were about reinvesting their ill-gotten gains into new, albeit less criminal but still shady, endeavors. The monetary amounts they were discussing were in the billions of credits.

Now that the team knew the layout, security protocols and schedules, and could predict when all eight targets would be onsite, the battle plan needed formulation.

As expected, Jian was tasked with that duty. She labored over it for two days and finally presented it over dinner in their hotel rooms.

She began, “After we get into the building, two of us start at the top and clear down. Two, from the bottom up. And one secures the targets. I’ve got the details.”

Jian presented the details over the next few minutes and ended with, “So, what do you think?”

Moss chuckled. “Nice try.”

“It won’t work?” Jian said in a pained voice.

“I’d give it 50-50,” Moss said.

“What did I miss?”

“You’ve got everything accounted for,” Pax told her.

“It’s a detailed plan,” River concurred.

Jian frowned and studied the holo-representation hovering above the coffee table. “Okay. I’m confused.”

“No plan…” Moss prompted.

“Survives contact with the enemy,” she finished the well-worn saying with a groan.

Jian breathed deep a few times and started again, “Three to take the targets. One of us above, and one below in stealth. We don’t clear any of the floors. In and out.”

Quinn finally spoke, “That would work because….”

“We already have control of the building NSAI.”

“Yes,” Moss agreed. “When do we hit them?”

“At the end of their workday.”

“Good,” Quinn concluded and stood. He was secretly smiling at Jian’s quick reassessment of the situation. He, of course, couldn’t let her know of his approval of her ability to rebound under pressure. It was his duty, which he reluctantly accepted, to be the stolid backbone of their team. Typically, the others asked the questions, challenged assumptions, ran with ideas, and he held space for that to occur. It fit his personality to some degree, but he was also a master tactician with a clinical mind. The team knew this, but his natural gregariousness was something they didn’t know. He suppressed this part of himself, which came from his black maternal great-grandmother. She was a storyteller of some renown. He loved that woman. The ethnic strains from his other relatives were more traditional and constrained, to be sure, and these he gave free rein, but he was a free spirit deep in his heart. His conditioning, training, and the genetic influence of the other ethnic strains lived in quiet harmony with this free spirit, and during the six-month block leave, it came out to play.

The infiltration plan, which didn’t change, was to enter the building as maintenance workers. They did so separately throughout the next afternoon.

The building was a functional plascrete and steel office building with few amenities. Four stories high with a flat roof for aircraft, the top floor held executive suites. The third and second floors were offices for the staff of the various company departments. The ground floor was conference rooms, employee cafeteria, and visitor accommodations. There was a basement for parking. It was through the basement they each gained access using ID cards River forged from tapping into the building NSAI.

Around 1600 local time, Quinn gave the ‘go’ order. He, Moss, and River were the capture team. Pax was on the roof to secure it for Satya’s stealth shuttle. Jian was on the third floor to deal with anyone trying to head upstairs. She was pretending to do maintenance on the elevator.

The capture team was stealthed and waited for the eight targets to bunch up in the hallway as they wandered toward the elevator to leave the building. Then Moss uncloaked to confront them, while River and Quinn attended to the support staff and the obvious bodyguards behind the group.

As Moss approached, four bodyguards dropped to the ground from stun bolts.

“Hi!” Moss shouted. “We’re your escort to League space. Central has cells waiting for you and a lengthy list of crimes for you to answer for.”

Before the leaders could protest, two more bodyguards hit the floor.

“My sneaky colleagues will stun all of you if need be,” Moss went on, “and if a weapon is actually deployed, that person will die.”

He smiled a full wolf-grin and said, “Now, then, please head for the stairs. Your ride awaits on the roof.”

Pax cut in on tac-net, “I’ve got another shuttle inbound.”

“Will we have room for ours if you let it land?” Quinn asked.

“I think so.”

“Jian take the elevator to the roof and help Pax secure the people on the other shuttle,” Quinn directed. “Block the door open so the elevator can’t be used when you exit it. We’re two minutes out. Pax, have our shuttle follow the other one in.”

“Let’s move it,” Moss directed the group of eight. “Up the stairs. No dawdling.”

Two more bodyguards hit the deck, and River sprinted to head up the stairs first. Moss and Quinn followed the group of eight and watched the remaining employees who cowered in the hallway.

When they reached the roof, Moss rigged a flash-bang booby-trap on the door to the roof and hurried to hop aboard the shuttle. The bad guys were strapped in and handcuffed, and Quinn called out to the loadmaster, a chief petty officer, as Moss jumped in, “All in. Let’s go.”

The pilot answered, “The alert has gone out, Quinn.”

“Okay. You know what to do,” Quinn replied as he buckled into his seat.

“Stealth system active,” the pilot said. “It will be a bumpy ride.”

The shuttle weaved through the buildings on a northerly heading then flew nap of the earth through mountains until the pilot found a hole in the global sensor net. Then he shot for orbit.

Satya released from its docking bay and drifted away from the station, then it cloaked and headed for the RV point with the shuttle. When the shuttle landed, Satya uncloaked and squawked League transponder codes.

The station traffic control barked at them, “League vessel, you are in violation of traffic rules.”

Captain John responded in the clear so everybody in local space could hear them, “Traffic control, this is Penglai Foreign Service ship Satya with League navy authorization for a covert operation just completed. We need an outbound vector.”

“Stand by,” traffic control responded.

It took a few minutes for traffic control to get back to them. During the wait, Marshal McIntire contacted them.

“You’ve got them, I take it,” he said with a chuckle in his voice.

“Yes, we do,” was Captain John’s humorous response.

“The SpecOps guys will be disappointed.”

“I’m sure they will, but it was Quinn’s team, Marshal. What did you expect?”

“True enough. We’ll rendezvous at the hyper limit.”

“Sounds good. Satya out.”

Then traffic control got back to them.

Next, Captain’s John’s voice came over the ship’s intercom, “Quinn, you’ll need to calm down traffic control.”

“On my way,” Quinn said and headed to the bridge. Once there, the communication officer handed Quinn a headset.

“This is Quinn, team lead for a Coyote team.”

“This is station master Alonzo Montaigne. You have kidnapped HG3 citizens, Quinn.”

“We’re a Coyote team, station master. Under League Article 27b3, we can arrest anyone anywhere in League space. I’m sending you my authorization codes.”

Quinn gestured to the comm officer who sent the codes.

After a moment, Montaigne grumped, “This is in order. It appears there’s nothing I can do.”

“Thank you, station master,” Quinn replied.

The trip home was uneventful. Once beyond the hyper limit of the Highguard system, they transferred the prisoners to McIntire’s custody and headed home.

When they were settled in hyper-space, Moss said with a dramatic sigh, “Well, another day, another dollar ninety-five.”

Jian shot him a puzzled look. “What’s a dollar?”

“An old form of currency.”

“And the saying?”

Moss smirked. “The pointless drudgery of working as a wage-earner.”

“The sarcasm is lost on me,” Jian replied dryly.

“Kids, these days.”

They returned to the Coyote wing of the temple and slipped easily into the house routine. Jian wrote up her self-evaluation of the mission and discussed it at some length with Rand, who stood in for Master Lu for her evaluations.

Rand looked more relaxed, now that he was retired from active duty. It was hard to tell, though, due to his taciturn nature. His temples sported gray hair, but he was as fit as ever. Jian didn’t know him, but Moss referred to him a time or two and held the seasoned veteran in high regard.

They met after breakfast in the empty cafeteria for their scheduled interview. Jian sat across from him at one of the tables and waited for him to speak.

Rand was flipping through her report, which he studied before he met with her. Eventually, he said in a low voice, “It’s a more balanced report than any you submitted so far.”

Then he looked up to meet her eyes. “It also shows you are still weak on strategy. Do you agree?”

Jian took the challenge well and answered, “I saw my error, but not until Moss directed me to it.”

“Did you know he ran a team during the war with the Empire?”

“I heard, yes, but he doesn’t talk about it.”

“He does have an eye for strategy but not the patience to run a team.”

Jian didn’t know what to say to that, so she held her peace.

Rand went on, “Each of us is a unique mix of talents and limitations. We become very good at recognizing them. How would you assess yours?”

Right to the heart of the matter, Jian thought with a sigh. Then she said, “I’m too serious and perfectionist to see the big picture. The strategy I came up with in that operation was to clear the building and then take the prisoners off-site. I wanted to control the entire battle space. That was a strategic error. On the other hand, I’m focused and determined when there is a clear goal to achieve.”

“Like a stalking tiger,” Rand said with a serious tone to his voice.

Jian half-smiled. “Not how I would characterize it, but yes.”

“The pirates on the station you assaulted would probably see it that way. You tore through them pretty well.”

“And I had trouble keeping track of the whole environment during the battle. I kept getting tunnel vision.”

“But you caught it and switched to wide-angle vision well enough.”

“But not soon enough, in my view.”

“I disagree. You’re alive, and you’ll get better at switching back and forth. The big picture problem is also one of inexperience. It does require a different mindset as well. Even so, I agree with you that strategy isn’t your gift. Pax seems to think you would make a good empath.”

Jian sighed. “I don’t know how to assess that.”

Now Rand allowed himself a rare half-smile. “We’ll let the empath department handle that. You’ll be meeting with them tomorrow.”

Rand stood and finished with, “You’re doing well, Coyote Jian.”

Jian was quick to let Pax know of her meeting, but he already knew.

She found him at the outdoor shooting range. It was a clear day with a breeze coming off the mountains.

Pax retreated from the firing line to talk to her.

“You know, if they accept you, you will begin training immediately.”

Jian’s eyes widened. “I’ll be off your team?”

Pax chuckled. “You were bound for another team in any event.”

She breathed out and smiled ruefully. “I like stability. I like being with people I trust.”

“I can’t fault that logic, but empath training is something you will benefit from.”

“I will miss you guys.”

“As we will you. You have been a good team mate, and River enjoyed having a woman around.”

“We’re all like brothers and sisters, aren’t we?”

“We work to make it so.”

The evening meal was a bit awkward as Jian didn’t know how to say goodbye. Moss, as usual, was not reluctant to break the awkward moment.

“Chances are they will reject you, Jian. I think they only select one in three. I can tell you they didn’t want me.”

“Big surprise there,” River commented.

Quinn said, “People come and go through our lives. Enjoy them when they’re around, then look forward to seeing them again. In this life or the next.”

“Not all of them are enjoyable,” Moss amended.

Pax added, “Some must be endured.”

Moss chuckled.

The next day, Jian headed off to her empath assessment, and the team was called to Master Lu’s office.

It was mid-morning when they arrived and Lu waved them to the cozy alcove.

“We have a request from the Congress,” he began. “It appears our neighbors in the Andromeda galaxy are attempting to cross the gap between our galaxies. The Congress is forming a First Contact team to meet them halfway.”

“Wow,” Moss said. “That’s some serious technology. I mean, Andromeda is a gazillion light years away.”

“Two and a half million,” Lu corrected him. “It’s a bigger galaxy with about twice as many stars as ours. As to the technology, I’m not the person to talk to. However, the way I understand it, once you are outside the galactic halo, space-time exhibits different characteristics that Congress’ advanced technology can take advantage of.”

“Didn’t Solomon warn us about this?” Quinn asked.

“Yes. Our very human and definitely quirky ASI did tell us the Congress was planning a trip to Andromeda. It seems our galactic neighbors beat them to the punch.”

“And they want us on the First Contact team,” Pax restated the purpose of the meeting.

Lu nodded without any embarrassment for the far-ranging discussion so far and said, “You and Tulku Raina. You’ll join up with the SpecOps platoon you worked with before. There will also be a contingent of marines – none of ours, though. The rest of the group will be the First Contact specialists – a hundred or more, along with probably triple that number in support staff.”

“Big crew,” Moss observed. “What will Raina’s role be?”

“Out of the box physics, if they need it,” Lu said. “They reviewed her published work, talked to Solomon about it, and they think she would be a good addition to the team.”

River smiled. “I like the idea. She’s good company and over-the-top smart.”

Lu nodded and continued, “And they’re taking a battlecruiser and two light cruisers, plus the normal support vessels for a task force that size. As for anything more, you’ll get the rest when you arrive.”

“When do we leave?” Quinn asked.

“Tomorrow.”

“And Jian?” River wanted to know.

Lu offered a slight smile. “I strongly suspect she will be busy with empath training.”

River grinned back. “Good. I think she has what it takes.”