God's Dogs

1) No one is coming to save you.

2) Everything is your responsibility.

3) Save who needs to be saved.

4) Kill who needs to be killed.

5) ALWAYS be working.

Matt Graham

River was in ‘spacer on leave’ garb, loose, dark pants and a loose collarless lavender top with three-quarter sleeves. Under it, of course, was her combat skin-suit. She was in an upscale bar on one of the entertainment space stations circling Central. Her target was a man they linked to Wilson. The man, Rudolf Gunther, was a local lobbyist. River was waiting for him to show up at his favorite watering hole, while the rest of the team was waiting for him at the other locations he may appear.

She was in a corner, and when she saw him walk in, she began moving. She pulled her ‘presence’ into her center, passed behind him, and planted the bug with no problem. Then she exited the bar and went to her hotel room to await results.

The next thing she knew, she was clawing her way back to consciousness. [Becky! What’s going on?]

[Gas canister on a timed release after you opened the door. I’ve been working with your medical nanos to cancel its effects.]

River stumbled into the bathroom and ran the fan, splashed water over her face, and slowly came fully awake.

[Looks like they want a hostage or captive or something,] she told Becky.

[Do some deep breathing. We need to get your lungs cleared out. Then you can lie down where you were and see who shows up.]

[Yeah. Good thinking.]

Two burly guys in suits showed up about ten minutes later. They pulled her to her feet, one on each arm. River waited until she was standing, then back-chopped the one on her left to the throat, and hammered the other one to the groin. Then she came straight up with her right elbow to his throat.

They were both down, trying to breathe through broken tracheas, which didn’t last long. As she started to go through their pockets, a flashy-dressed young platinum blonde woman came through the door. “What’s taking so long?”

“Hi. I’m River,” she said as she stood. “I think my escort is dead. Why don’t you take me to wherever I’m supposed to go.”

“Oh no,” the woman gulped, her hands going to her mouth.

River moved to block her view of the corpses, turned her around, and instructed, “Let’s go. I’m sure it’s not far.”

She pushed the woman into the hall. “Which way?”

The woman pointed to the elevator. When they got into the car, she punched the button for the top floor.

When they reached the floor, the woman balked as the elevator opened. “I don’t want to get in any trouble.”

“You won’t,” River reassured her. “I’ll see to that. Just take me to where I need to go.”

“Okay,” was the woman’s unsure response. Then she led River down the hall to an unmarked door, used her hand on the pad to open it, and they entered a well-appointed hotel suite.

Gunther was gazing out a window to the sight of the planet Central and the busy space surrounding it.

“Any trouble?”

“Not for me,” River answered. “Your boys won’t be joining us.”

Gunther whirled around.

“I’m River. I take it you want to see me.”

[He’s attempting to contact someone with his implant,] Becky said. [I’m jamming it.]

River turned to the woman and commanded, “Sit there and don’t move.” The woman quickly sat on the sofa River indicated.

“You, Mr. Gunther, can sit here,” River pointed to a chair near the window. “Now, tell me what’s up.”

“You killed them?”

“Yeah. That’s old news. What do you want with me?”

Gunther’s sculpted bronze face began twitching.

“Easy way or hard way, Rudy?” River prompted.

[Pax is in-bound,] Becky told her. [Moss and Quinn are half-an-hour out.]

“Well,” Gunther stammered, “we’re supposed to give you a message.”

“I can imagine. Who is this message from?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

“Sure you can. You can also give me the super-secret files I'm sure you keep.”

Gunther was trying to get control of his breathing and managed, “This isn’t how this was supposed to go.”

“Things change, Rudy. Time to adapt. Who put the contract out on me?”

Pax slipped in and secured the door behind him. He glanced at the woman on the couch, then circled behind River to come up next to Gunther.

“They’ll kill me!” Gunther said, his nerve breaking.

“Maybe. Maybe not. Help us out — and you know the drill.”

Gunther slumped in the chair and said, “It’s on a data cube. In a book. Top shelf of the bookcase on the right. Last book.”

“That was easy,” River smiled. “If it checks out, we’ll get you into witness protection.”

“No! That won’t work. They have an in there.” Gunther looked up, panic starting to creep over him. “You’re Coyotes, right? You could protect me, couldn’t you?”

Pax, holding a data cube, called to River from the bookcase, “Got it.”

“We’ll send marines to get you,” River said, “once we review what you gave us. I suggest you stay here and wait for the marines, or you can run if you want. We won’t chase you.”

River and Pax left to meet up with the rest of the team at their temporary headquarters on station. It was the station’s marine outpost, a six-room office complex. Sgt. Murphy had commandeered it for their use.

“We’ve got a rat somewhere,” River told Pax as they left the hotel. Then she related the events.

“We’ve got a rat,” Pax concurred, “and we’ve got somebody gunning for us.”

“Not a very auspicious start.”

They hustled to the outpost, which was staffed by half the marine platoon. The other half, about twenty marines, had yet to arrive on station.

River set the data cube up in a conference room for viewing. The data cube gave a view into the organization Gunther was part of — its objectives, some of the players, and past and current operations. It was enough to push onto the next levels in the criminal hierarchy. What it didn’t provide was the name of the person on the inside of Quinn’s operation.

Sgt. Murphy sighed, “The obvious place to look is my marines.”

“True,” Quinn agreed. “If you would assemble them, we’ll see if Pax or River can pick up anything.”

One of the rooms in the outpost was large enough to fit them all, and once the marines were assembled, Murphy spoke to them. The team spaced themselves around the perimeter.

“Someone tipped off the bad guys,” Murphy said in a terse, demanding tone. “I don’t want to think it was one of you, but our OpSec is such that no one else knew what was happening. If it is one of you, ’fess up now and we may be able to use you as a double agent.”

None of the marines moved. Pax looked to River, who nodded once. They both picked up on the guilt radiating from one of the marines. Then they both moved to a corporal in the middle of the group. They each latched onto an arm.

The marine slumped and said, “They have my family.”

Pax replied, “We’ll get them back.”

Quinn turned to Murphy. “You can go get Gunther and the woman.”

Murphy nodded and detailed a squad to do so. The others were dismissed to their normal duties. Pax and River took charge of the corporal and began questioning him in an adjoining smaller room.

The corporal’s family was on New Naples, a world named in memory of a volcano-lashed city on Earth. When all the particulars of the corporal’s family were known, Moss contacted Satya to relay that information, the current situation, a request to rescue the corporal’s family, and the further request to capture the bad guys holding them so they could climb up that hierarchical structure as well.

“What are you going to do with me?” the corporal asked.

Murphy replied, “You have shit for brains, Politano. You don’t ever trust bad guys to keep their promises. Ever, goddammit! You trust your team mates. And since you didn’t trust us, we can’t trust you. You’re busted back to recruit. You’ll go to remedial training at Iron Mountain.”

“I panicked.”

“I know, son. The remedial training may help you with that.”

“Thanks, Sergeant,” Politano muttered. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah. Pack your shit and stay in the barracks. You’re out of here as soon as I can arrange it.”

After he left, Quinn said, “We will need a fleshed out policy on how we deal with this kind of thing. It will happen again.”

“I’ll kick it up my chain-of-command,” Murphy replied.

“You’re detached to us,” Quinn retorted. “We need to figure it out.”

River spoke, “First off, Pax and I can monitor their emotional state. Second, they all need a refresher on what Murphy said — bad guys can’t be trusted to keep their word. And third, they need to know we — the entire Coyote force — will destroy anyone that threatens them or their loved ones.”

Moss grinned. “Sounds like a good policy to me.”