Alliance Hunter
Chapter 26

I leaned against a wall the bunk of a building shading me from the harsh sun. I was dressed in a turquoise vest top and blue jeans, brown ankle boots finished my ensemble. I wore makeup on my face to hide the cuts and bruises that had yet to fully heal. Around my neck I wore a scarf again to hide the burns on my neck due to the shock collar. On my waist was a belt holding my belt purse, which contained nothing, incriminating. I rather have a gun at my side but that wasn’t possible at this moment in time. Too many civilians walking around or driving by. I wanted to avoid any collateral damage. I watched the entrance of a squat building opposite there was a large sign about the door in USE, which was a surprise. The sign read CAW the old name for the Confederacy. It meant Confederation of Allied Worlds. Typical that the Black Stripes would use this building as a HQ. Even though it looked as if I was on my own there were three squads of Marines and Ground Forces close at hand. Osward vetoed my going at all but I managed to talk him round. I suppose he was right seeing the very limited intel we had. Sophronia only went into the museum she was never shown the underground tunnels. Her meeting was with someone calling himself the Curator, another with a ridiculous title. The Black Stripes were split into divisions. Sophronia only knew the Curator and none of the other members. I guess they were using the old cell system, where one conspirator knew one person from another cell typical of any and all terrorist organisations. The same as those that had littered history for the last couple of centuries on Earth. According to Prousenos there was a lot of rivalry between the two. Sophronia only picked me up because the Curator missed me on the first sweep. Although it was obvious when outside danger threatened they ganged together. Unfortunately for Sophronia she had refused to hand me over otherwise the outcome for the CGF could have been much different. When I had disabled the holo camouflage I disabled the railgun defences.

I straightened up I’d spent enough time here it was time to act. I tapped my comm as if I was waiting for a lift that never arrived. The bracelet I wore was a disguise. It would show data for Saros and my alias of Gloria Henry on that world. The real comms device was the gaudy jewelled barrette pulling my hair away from my right ear. The clever Ezaran made device was an open microphone with a direct link to the squads.

“I about to go in,” I said. I didn’t get a reply the barrette was one way only.

The Ezaran that fitted it said it would broadcast even if I was deep underground. I turned and walked away from the museum taking a circuitous route to my destination. The streets were busy so I didn’t really look out of place. I had to be cautious anyone here could be a Black Stripe in disguise doing the very thing I was doing.

The detour around the block had given me time to think. Kara had urged caution, which had taken me aback at the time. I had wanted to go straight in which was almost too Valkyrie. So I had to abide by her decision and wait. I thought back to the compound and the women burning their orange jumpsuits. The Confeds had supplied the former prisoners with civilian clothing. The same clothing I was wearing. I hadn’t asked how or where they had got them from but it was a relief to be out of the orange. My clothes had still been in their wrappers when I was given them. I scuffed the boots and wrinkled and dusted my jeans and top to make them look as if they had been lived in. I was more familiar with this type of undercover surveillance when I worked for Security on Earth. It seemed like so many years ago. I hadn’t actually participated in any surveillance operations but I had taken the course and I was relying on my memories of how to act. I considered what I had done on Saros but that had been another time and place and look what happened to me there. Osward had wanted to kick in the front door and storm the place. That idea had appealed to me until Kara pointed out we didn’t know what defences they had. When I took the time to think about it she was right and I decided to go in undercover. Calmer voices prevailed and we went with my suggestion. I was to do recon as Prousenos had said Sophronia’s recollections of the security measures inside were rather vague. The building housing the museum was a former bunker, which explained the pockmarked walls and narrow windows. Any assault in such a manner would get my team killed. Prousenos bleakly informed me the Curator would keep them alive until he extracted every last bit of information from them. The only thing in our favour was the Black Stripes total distrust of telepaths. I was relying on that fact to keep my team alive. The Curator would have a hell of a job trying to interrogate the Valkyrie.

I moved closer to the bunker, which it was rather than referring it as a museum. I could see clearly the marks of battle from when the fledging Confederacy fought Imperial troops during the Secession War. Past history as far as I was concerned but the Black Stripes seemed to think that war was still in progress. My eyes scanned what I could see looking for signs of surveillance equipment. Just because I failed to find any didn’t mean there was none I had to take things cautiously.

“It looks like nothing out of the ordinary.” I kept up a low voiced running commentary as I went. I had been assured the comms microphone could pick it up. I would have felt more assured had Denassi had been the one that had fixed up the barrette. “I’m about to go through the doors,” I said.

I walked up a set of steps and went through the entrance. I was amazed at the thickness of the walls, which were made of a hardened duracrete. It would take the main railgun of a cruiser to blast through those walls, but that it meant it would totally destroy the bunker. Not a option here at any rate. Sliding doors were recessed into the walls of the bunker and you had to walk through three meters of bunker walls to reach them. I took note of the gaudy posters and signs on the walls all as fake as the so-called museum itself.

The door slid open as I approached and I stepped into a semi dark room it played havoc with my vision. I stood there for a moment as my eyes adjusted. There was a reception desk to the left and in front of me were rows of display cases. As my eyes took up what I was seeing I noticed several panels in the ceiling. “Possible auto cannon emplacements in ceiling behind panels.” I continued my running commentary. “More than the ordinary security scanners either side of the doors. The scanners they were using on the doors were more high security than they should be for a place like this. I was glad I didn’t have a weapon that would have set them off before I could blink. I noticed the closest display case was slightly lower than it neighbours. I guessed that these cases could be recessed into the floor giving the auto cannons a clear line of sight to the door. That was my guess anyway. A patch of floor directly opposite the door was what could have been the remains of a blast wall. I turned and strolled towards the reception desk. A plain faced, purple haired woman sat behind the desk looking intently at me. She was wearing a sleeveless floral summer dress.

“Hello how can I help you?” she said her voice echoing the local accent.

“Is there a fee for entry?” I asked cautiously aware of my Imperial accent.

She pointed to a payment comms scanner. “No, but we do encourage donations.”

I put my wrist comms to it like I was a visitor. It gave me a chance to peer behind her desk. I took note of a datapad but there was nothing to say the system could be accessed from there.

I saw her glance at the scanner. “You’re not from around here are you?” she asked her voice betraying her nervousness.

“Saros,” I replied. I didn’t know if the security scanners had a voice-sensing package. They could pick up traces of untruth in a person’s voice almost like those old-time polygraphs but a lot more accurate. Which was the truth when it came to that.

“You are a long way from home aren’t you.”

I found her questioning a bit irritating. “That’s true.”

She scrutinised what I was wearing. “You don’t seem like a tourist, here on business?”

She was digging but it she was too amateur to be in Security. I reckon she was fishing and doing a bad job at that. I decided to play along I’d probably get more information out of her than she would out of me. I knew what I was doing it was clear she didn’t.

“You could say that,” I answered her question.

I saw her screw up her face as she considered her next question. “Oh, what sort of business?”

“Minding my own business,” I put a bit of an edge into my voice and faked irritation, which wasn’t that hard considering the tension I was feeling.

She frowned. “No need to be rude!” she snorted.

I pretended to be contrite. “Sorry I hadn’t meant to. I keep being told to be nicer.”

She gave me a look. “You do know that we have nothing worth stealing and I have a direct line to the nearest Security Department!”

“I’m not on that sort of business,” I told her pretending to be alarmed. I took a gamble hoping it would pay off. “It’s just the Saros Security were being rough with a number of patriotic citizens. I just shouted my mouth off.”

She looked confused. “Shout your mouth off? I haven’t heard that expression before.”

Note to self, steer way from using Imperial expressions. “I was supposed to say. I attracted the attention of Saros Security.” I leaned in close. “Their Security Chief is a Valkyrie you know what they are like?”

She considered my words and drew a deep breath. “I’ll still be watching you.”

“Yeah do that.” I feigned a sigh. “I only came in because the person I was waiting for is going to be late.”

She looked down at her data pad then at me. “Please enjoy your visit?” she said pleasantly

Her sudden turnaround had my senses tingling. It seemed very suspicious. I moved away pretending to examine the exhibits. There was a definite bias against the Empire I found galling. At the back of the room as a door with an ‘employee only’ sign above it and a keypad on the wall next to it. That would be the way in. I was sure I could get it open I just didn’t want to lose blood to do it. I stopped in front of an exhibit showing an animated space battle between Empire and Confederacy forces. I saw the reflection of the woman from reception standing behind me in the screen glass. I turned swiftly to find her pointing a gun at me in her trembling hand.

“So not satisfied in taking a donation you want to rob me?” I sneered at her keeping up the pretence. The last thing I wanted was a squad of Marines bursting in here and triggering the defences. Unarmoured my life expectancy would be brief.

“Stay where you are spy!” she stuttered sounding out of her depth.

Several scenarios flashed through my mind. If I hesitated too long I’d have a squad of soldiers bursting through the door. That wasn’t the type of shit storm I wanted to be the centre of. “Hold on,” that was said to my barrette and to the woman. “Spy?”

“Terran spy!”

I guess it was my accent I’d have to do something about that it was too late to lie my way out. The woman stepped closer. A rookie mistake I didn’t hesitate to use to my advantage. In the time it took her to blink I had her pressed face first crushed up against the exhibit. One arm pushed up her back at a painful angle. The barrel of her gun pressed against the base of her skull where it met the neck joint. More Valkyrie training I had done that without thinking.

“We’re going to have a little chat,” I said pleasantly. I jerked her off the exhibit and with her arm still up her back I steered her towards the ‘employee’ door. I halted by the door and pushed her up against the wall.

“Open it!” I demanded I hated being harsh but I hadn’t the time to play nice.

With shaking fingers she tapped in a code on the door. It slid open to reveal a short corridor with four doors flanking it. I pushed the woman before me making her open the first door. It revealed a cluttered storeroom nothing in there to indicate an elevator. The next door slid open to reveal a small square room full of cleaning equipment. It was a bust. Further down behind the third door was a deserted office filled with dust and not much else. A door with the office opened into a disused washroom.

I stood outside the last door prepared for anything.

“Open it?”

The woman hesitated and opened the door. Inside was another office in use this time. It was typical of any Confed office I’d seen with a lot of those pretend cabinets that made the room seem less sparse. There was another door it led to a washroom. In the centre of the room was a desk and terminal. As I stepped inside pushing my prisoner before me. I thought that something was off about the room. It seemed smaller than its opposite number. There were a number of fake looking bookcases lining the wall. I sat the woman at the desk and waved my gun at the holo screen.

“Open it,” I said. I know I was breaking my promise not to keep repeating words but this was a special case.

“I can’t I don’t know the password,” she protested.

I knew she wasn’t lying. She was too scared to be. I gave a sigh.

“Right, how do you shut down the auto cannons?”

“Auto cannons, what auto cannons?”

“The ones in the ceiling of the exhibit room.”

“There isn’t any?”

I felt sorry for her but not too sorry she had no clue as to what was really going on here. She may have been a Black Stripe but she seemed so far down the chain of command that she might have not been one.

“Do not move!” I ordered. I touched the keyboard to see the system open up to me. I grew instantly suspicious. It had been too easy. There was nothing of use on it. I shut it down my frustration growing. Prousenos told me there was an underground there had to be a way down. I looked around my mind working furiously. Something in this room was shouting to get my attention.

“Satisfied?” the woman, said breaking through my thoughts. She hadn’t moved she sat at the desk sweat rolling down her face her hands still shaking. “Please let me go. Security will be here soon.”

“I doubt that,” I replied. “The GF will have stopped them.”

“GF?” She looked at me shocked.

“The Confederacy Ground Forces that are currently flooding this area. The Empire has no interest in what’s going on here but the Valkyrie are.”

“Valkyrie? They are on our side.”

“No, they are not. You did that to them when you decided to try a draw the Valkyrie into a war with the Confederacy.”

“That’s a lie?” the woman paused then said. “Isn’t it?” her resolve was wavering.

“Why do you think I’m here. The Valkyrie sent me.”

The woman stared at me her lower lip trembling then said nothing.

In the silence I took the time to take another look at my surroundings. Then I saw it if not for the serious nature of my predicament I would have laughed.

“So cliché,” I remarked. I was looking at the bookcases that lined one wall. It was so obvious, almost as it someone had taken their idea from ancient black and white vids those that featured creepy castles. The ones with a secret door hidden behind a bookcase. Fake bookcases, yet on one of the fakes a fake book stood out slightly from the others. On a whim I pulled it. There was a grinding noise, which I wasn’t surprised by. Someone was really going all out in the creepy stakes. The two bookcases either side of it moved forward as the bookcase in the centre split aside to reveal an elevator door and a button.

“That’s novel,” I said sarcastically.

The woman stared at the elevator door surprise on her face. “I swear I didn’t know about that!” she protested.

“I believe you,” I told her and pulled her out of the chair. “You will be coming with me.” I thought it a good idea to show her what the Black Stripes were really like. That and I didn’t trust her to stay put.

Taking her in hand I pushed her into the elevator all the time updating the comms.

The elevator had only two buttons arrows pointing up and down. I pressed the logical choice.

“Going down,” I called to my barrette with a gun in one hand my other clutching the woman’s arm.

“This isn’t real it can’t be real,” she kept repeating to herself all the way down.

The elevator opened with an annoying ding, which ruined any chance of surprise. I saw a short corridor and a man sitting behind a desk at the far end with a door behind him only briefly. He stood, drew his gun and fired without a word. His shot hit the woman killing her instantly. I felt her go heavy under my hand and I released my hold on her. Without further thought I fired. Two shots, first to the chest sending the man reeling back, the second a head shot killing him. I edged forward my gun ready. I spared a moment of regret for forcing the woman to come with me. The fixed expression of mixed shock and horror on her face was one I’d not be able to shake off. It joined the images of Solstrid in my head. She may have been an enemy but she didn’t deserve to die like that. I closed on the dead guard ready to fire again if his body even twitched.

I moved forward and peered over the desk. I had been right the guard had been wearing a security vest. My first shot had hit it dead centre. Because of the vest my shot would have been stopped. Hence the training the Valkyrie had given me. First to stun, second to kill. I hadn’t even thought about it, it was automatic. I had no regrets about killing him. I looked back at the woman she was my regret, someone would have to inform her family of her death. I hadn’t even got to know her name. She was a victim in a way. Her belief in the Black Stripes hadn’t been that fanatical and she could have been redeemed. Too late for that now I still had a mission. I updated my comms on the situation and carried on. The datapad on the desk contained nothing useful. Well if you discounted the amount of porn it held. I threw it down in disgust and searched the desk. All it contained were food wrappers and booze bottles. I was weary of the bottles they seemed to contain something that wasn’t booze by the smell. I felt gut curl at the thought and turned my attention to the dead guard. A quick search of the body bought up his pistol and a spare clip. Something about the pistol tugged at my memory. I examined it carefully my blood freezing as I saw the stamp on the receiver. ‘Ceres Armoury’ I could see the irony an anti-Imperial with a weapon from the Empire. I began to see a larger conspiracy at hand. I put the spare clip in my pants pocket and the pistol in my waistband. With grim determination I moved towards the door behind the guard.

I hesitated before I opened it. “I’m going in.” I commed my barrette.

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