The Second Sphere
Chapter 32

Len Overman sat at attention with his hands folded on the table in front of him in the conference room in the military wing of Laslow. He was tall, with a dark complexion, built like he was made in a factory, which I suppose he truly was. With a stone face and ice-cold eyes, he was an archetypical military man. Around him, the white room was stark, bereft of frills or any feeling.

After Nelson and Malinda came into the room, we exchanged greetings with Len and took our seats. Bryant spoke, telling Len everything he had clearance to hear. That didn’t include information about the biological agent or the interviews, but it was enough so that Len could get the gist of why we wanted to conduct the mission. Len stared intently at the schematics in front of him, asking questions about timing and troops and expected combatants. He nodded after responses. As the presentation went on, a waver came to his eyes. The confidence that I normally saw before missions of this type wasn’t there.

“What do you think?” I asked when Bryant was done.

I waited for him to describe a vision of how the mission would play out, how long it would take to prep his troops; options for entrance. But he just stared at me like there were missing pieces.

I’d known Len for a while. He and I worked together for fifty years on the moon, dark side mostly. Most of his missions were grab and dash jobs, targets of interest that were briefly interrogated in our building, then quickly shipped to Mars. He’d taken down the Sector 60 cell that we assumed was intent on destroying the Lunar Capitol. While that had been a mistake, the mission to get them ran smoothly. Len was our best Squad leader, which was why we needed patience with him. No one wanted to get on Len’s bad side.

“This doesn’t look good to me,” he said as he adjusted himself in his seat.

“Can it be done?” Bryant asked.

Len chuckled to himself and stroked his chin. “Of course it can be done. I never said it couldn’t. I just don’t like it.”

We didn’t have much of a personal relationship, he and I. There was never anything more than a formal regard for one another. We never shot the shit or asked about family, never went out for enhancements, and never talked about women. That made Len’s mystique even stronger. I liked that about our relationship. There was no faking what we were.

It worried me that there was not yet a plan, some idea of how he would do this takedown. He should’ve been talking.

“Len, say something. Come on, man. We’ve got to know that you can get this done and that you can get it done with limited casualties,” I said.

Finally, after a minute of silence, Len moved his lips. Some kind of an interior debate occurred. The description of a plan was imminent, I hoped. His eyes sparkled and he began to nod. That was something.

“I’ve got to tell you guys,” he said before pausing again. “We’re going into this thing blind as hell. And I can’t say that I like it. We can’t get a glimpse of what’s inside that cave? Just a general sense?”

“This is what we’ve got,” Bryant said.

“How do I know there’ll only be two people?” Len asked. “Don’t know the kind of defenses out there? That makes me think that there could be a trap. Are you sure this intel you’ve got is good?”

“It’s good,” I said.

“I’m used to going into built structures, not the natural environment,” Len said. “I like to know there’s more than one way for my men to get in and then get out. I’m not seeing that.”

“Listen, Len,” Nelson said, “I understand that this place isn’t the easiest to get to and that we don’t have all of the assurances you normally like to have. But we’ve got to know that you can put together a plan and have your guys ready to go by tomorrow morning. If you can’t, we’ve got to figure out something else to do.”

Len took a deep breath. “If we want to take this place by surprise, we’re going to have to land almost right on top of it after they’re already inside.”

Malinda pointed to a place on the schematics. “This is about half a click away, behind this rock formation. That should be enough cover for your air transport. It’s likely that Beans will be coming by ground, so I’d be surprised if he can get a read on you.”

“That’s good,” Len said. “But I’m a little worried about what kind of bells and whistles they might have. A place like this? Likely that they’ve got some kind of security system extending out a few hundred meters. My guess is nothing complex. But it doesn’t matter. We’ll need to make sure we’ve got their defense signals jammed. Once we land, we’ll have to work quickly, because if we don’t, they might be able to seal themselves in there,” he said.

“I’m betting you’re going to need more troops,” Bryant said.

“More troops? Yeah, I think so. Ten won’t do it. And a few bots would be nice, too,” Len said.

“What time do you have your meeting?” Bryant asked Len.

“I need a few hours of prep. Figure out an exact game plan,” he said. “Then, I’ll meet with my people this afternoon and then again tomorrow morning before we head out,” he said as he ran his fingers along the edges of his lips.

“Orion will be there when you meet with your troops tomorrow,” Bryant said. “And I’ll work on getting those extra troops and a few bots. If there’s anything else you think of when you’re getting your plan together, just let me know.”

“I appreciate it, Bryant,” he said. “Good to see all of you.” Like the formal man that he was, before he left, he gave a salute.

I sighed.

“What do you think? Is he going to get a good enough plan together?” Malinda asked.

“Len could go to battle with a Swiss army knife and a coffee can,” I said.

“Yeah, but he’d probably be on the losing end of that battle,” Nelson said.

“I just hope we can bring them back alive, though,” Bryant said. “Whenever Len goes into a place with uncertainty, we end up having a lot of casualties. If we don’t get bad guys out of this? It’s not going to be good for this investigation. We’d pretty much be back at square one.”

“There’s not much of a choice on this, is there, though? We can’t rattle Len about that,” I said. “He knows we want them alive.”

I wasn’t trying to be provocative, only stating the obvious. My eyes met Bryant’s, considered the possibilities for verbal sparring. Not now. Not yet.

As I left the conference room to go back to my office, my thoughts drifted from war with Bryant to what it would mean when Cody Beans was brought back to Laslow. The more I heard about Cody and the preparation to take him, the more I wanted to tell Quincy Laslow the truth about my relationship with Cody. But I couldn’t. There was a plug in me. Telling Quincy could soften the blow. But then again, my addiction could make it hard to appoint me to Bryant’s position.

I wished there were a way to avoid Cody’s revelations about our relationship. But the odds were slim.

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