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“I'm here acting on the authority of the Quass. You and Vekaby and other men were responsible for the attack on the fort this morning. You have jeopardized the treaty we have with the Terrans.”

“They're just as bad as the others.” Mosbur backed slowly toward the door, pulling his hostage with him. ­People behind him cleared out of the way. He shoved a table over, clearing it from his path. “All the offworlders want our resources. They're all
poldyn
, determined to leech our blood until we're just skin and bones.” He reached for the door. “Now put your weapon down or I'll kill her.”

“Is she an enemy to you, Mosbur? Does she side with the Terrans?”

Mosbur pressed his weapon into his captive's neck more forcefully. “Do it!”

Noojin stretched her left arm out and started bending to lower her weapon to the floor. She deployed the grappling hook set in the housing of her left forearm. The grapple came online silently and established a reticle on her faceshield. The hook penetrated in slim line formation, then flared out when it reached its target.

When Noojin released her pistol, Mosbur took his weapon from his hostage's neck and swung it toward Noojin. Aiming at Mosbur's right calf where it was exposed outside the woman's leg, Noojin fired. The grapple was designed to penetrate plasteel and plascrete. It drove through flesh and blood with ease, tearing through Mosbur's calf and breaking his shinbone.

Squalling in pain, Mosbur stumbled to his right, away from the woman, and looked at the bloody wound that had exploded out of his leg. He managed to remain standing and tried to pull his weapon up.

Noojin gripped the thin buckyball strand attached to the grappling hook and yanked. Mosbur screamed in agony as his wounded leg flew up and he fell back. He left a bloody streak as he skidded across the floor like a hooked
jasulild,
but he was the smallest of those Noojin had ever taken.

Moving swiftly, Noojin plucked the beam weapon from Mosbur's hand and laid it aside. She roughly rolled the man over onto his stomach, then she reached into a thigh compartment for a binding strap to secure his wrists behind his back.

Mosbur continued groaning in pain.

Taking her knife from her sheath, Noojin sliced through the buckyball strand and secured the hook back in her forearm compartment where she would rearm it later. She removed a slap patch and compression bandage from the medical kit in her chest armor and put the patch on Mosbur's neck, rendering him unconscious at once. Then she put the compression bandage on his leg to stop the bleeding.

She didn't feel sorry for Mosbur. With the way the man had menaced the young woman—­with the way he had threatened Telilu—­he deserved death. Noojin wouldn't have hesitated to kill him.

Using the suit's enhanced strength, she stood and threw Mosbur over her shoulder. She still felt conflicted about aiding the Terran Army against her ­people, but after what Mosbur had done—­this morning and now—­her actions felt more certain.

 

TWENTY-­SIX

Red Light District

New Makaum

0043 Hours Zulu Time

A
s Sage turned the corner of the alley, he threw himself backward to avoid a direct hit from the Arayo Defender, but the gel charge struck the building above him as he crouched and tried to bring the Birkeland to bear. The explosion dropped a large chunk of the building onto him, burying him in a glowing pile of plascrete.

Sage pulled his arms free and levered himself up, shoving through the debris, which fell away all around him. Static filled his systems for a moment, throwing the feeds into a vortex of confused images across his faceshield. He searched through the confused haze of information filling his faceshield and tried to make sense of it as he scanned the alley.

Vekaby and his companion had disappeared.

“Sage?” The voice belonged to Blue Jay 12, hovering somewhere overhead. The jumpcopter pilot said something else, but he lost her words in the jamming effects of the munitions charge.

“I'm here.” Sage scanned the alley ahead of him, seeing that it opened out into a small street forty meters away. He was certain Vekaby and his partner hadn't returned past him. They would have been brought down by the wreckage if they'd tried to retreat. “I've lost my targets.”

“They're in the street ahead of you.”

Sage lurched forward through the rubble. He hadn't heard from Halladay since the explosion in the Weeping Onion and guessed that the colonel had had his hands full dealing with public relations—­or the general. Sage ran, opening his faceshield and using his eyes as the hardsuit's systems and musculature came back online. Unfiltered dust and pollen filled his nose, causing him to sneeze and choke as his lungs tightened.

Faceshield and programs are back online,
the near-­AI whispered into his ear.

Dropping the faceshield back into place, Sage checked on Kiwanuka and Noojin's status, seeing that they had each taken down their targets. Jahup stood over the man he'd been assigned to.

At the alley mouth, feeling the strength and speed back in the hardsuit once more, Sage followed the jumpcopter's laser designation and spotted Vekaby and the other ambusher hijacking a crawler. Vekaby held the large-­caliber pistol on the driver, then hauled the man out of the vehicle.

Sage ran toward the crawler and saw Vekaby's head swing around as the man spotted him. Vekaby fired another gel charge but missed by a meter as it sailed past Sage. The resulting explosion struck a neon sign and tore it to shreds, raining debris over the street but not doing much more damage. A plume of writhing orange flames and gray-­black smoke clawed toward the night sky.

Vekaby engaged the crawler's magnetic drive and sped forward. The passenger tried to shoot Sage with the Arayo Defender and spread a line of carnage along the street on both sides as he cycled the magazine dry.

Fifteen meters from the crawler and closing, Sage saw the passenger reloading the Defender, then aiming at him through the rear window. Vekaby yelled at the man, no doubt expressing what would happen if the gel charge hit the window and triggered detonation. The man reached down for another weapon, coming up with a solid projectile machine pistol. The near-­AI identified it as a new German-­made firearm.

Five meters away and accelerating, Sage holstered the Birkeland, threw himself forward, and landed on the crawler's top hard enough to dent the surface. Momentum exceeding that of the vehicle, Sage started skidding forward and slammed his left hand down as he pulsed a magnetic charge through the glove. Vekaby took evasive action and tried to shake him off.

Sage allowed his body to swing around, anchored by the magnetized glove. He slid over the crawler's windshield till his legs trailed across the front of the vehicle. Sage pulled himself to his knees, pulled his left glove to the side, and spotted the passenger wheeling around with the large-­capacity machine pistol in both hands. The man fired, stitching a line of holes through the transplas windshield. The bullets ricocheted off Sage's armor with bruising force.

Driving his hand forward through the windshield, Sage fisted the passenger's shirt and jerked to the left, bouncing his head off the side window. Fractures ran through the transplas and the man dropped the machine pistol as his eyes rolled up into his head. The seat belt held him in place.

Anxiously, Vekaby swerved and reached for the Arayo Defender between the seats. He'd just managed to fist the weapon only a split second before Sage grabbed it and tore it from his hand.

“Stop the crawler,” Sage commanded.

Instead of obeying, Vekaby accelerated and whipped the crawler sideways. The sharp right turn, especially with the combined weight of Sage and his armor making the vehicle top-­heavy, caused the crawler to flip onto its side and slide across the plascrete.

Before Sage could demagnetize his glove and kick free of the crawler, the vehicle overturned again, rolling onto its top and pinning Sage beneath it. A momentary flicker of panic filled him, but he kept himself calm as the suit held and he could breathe.

Warning,
the near-­AI said.
Sustaining this much weight can cause armor to—­

Ignoring the hardsuit, Sage continued getting battered on the rough street. He managed to get his right arm into position to provide purchase and shoved as hard as he could. Slowly, the crawler overturned onto its side and freed Sage.

“Are you all right, Top?” Blue Jay 12 asked.

“Yeah. I'm good.” Still sliding out of control, Sage got his balance and got to his feet while skipping like a stone behind the rolling vehicle. Ahead of him, the crawler hit a closed electronics store and demolished the front wall. Arriving only a second later, Sage raced around to the front of the car, which sat upside down.

Battered and bruised, cut in several places—­but none of it life threatening—­Vekaby struggled to get out of his safety harness. When he saw Sage standing in front of him through the shattered windshield, Vekaby slumped back into his seat in surrender.

Red Light District

New Makaum

0108 Hours Zulu Time

“Are you and your ­people all right?” Colonel Halladay asked.

“Yes sir,” Sage answered over their private comm channel. He stood on top of a three-­story plascrete building where one of the jumpcopters had touched down to take on the prisoners. He and his team had taken them into custody, bound them, and carried them up the stairs that led to the rooftop. ­People in the streets and in the surrounding buildings stared up to see what was going on.

Sage was uncomfortably aware that the jumpcopter made an attractive target for anyone who wanted to try for it. In anticipation of that, Sage had stationed his team around the rooftop. Armed drones deployed by the jumpcopter circled the area, feeding vid of the crowd standing down in the streets. Most of them were just gawkers, but there was a large gathering of anti-­Terran protestors as well. They cursed and made offensive gestures at the soldiers.

“This didn't turn out to be the quiet arrest we were hoping for,” Halladay said.

“No sir. Things went sideways pretty quickly. Vekaby and his ­people were outfitted with high-­tech armament that we hadn't expected, and they didn't want to be taken into custody.”

On board the jumpcopter, the crew secured the five prisoners in the cargo area.

“Where are they getting the weapons?” Halladay asked.

“Vekaby's not saying, but two of the other men say they got them from a supplier in Cheapdock.” Sage turned and gazed to the north, where the Offworlders' Bazaar lay. The location was only minutes away. He didn't mention that to Halladay because the colonel would know that.

“Who's selling the hardware?”

“The two men who told me where the weapons came from don't know. They went with Vekaby to pick them up, but they weren't party to the negotiations.”

“Where did Vekaby get the credits to buy the munitions?”

“That's another unknown, sir.”

Halladay cursed. “I want to know if the attack yesterday morning is an isolated event or just a preview of what we can expect.”

“Yes sir. My team and I are ready to pursue that line of the investigation.”

“I know, Top, but I don't have to tell you how General Whitcomb is taking this police action.”

Through the HUD's feed with the other jumpcopter cycling the area, Sage saw the line of destruction that trailed out of the Weeping Onion and flared out into two trails, one of them leading to the building where he stood.

“No sir, you don't.” Sage had already formed a good idea of what Whitcomb was all about. The general wanted to end his career with a quiet posting.

“It's a nightmare for the diplomatic corps, and believe me, they've already been contacting me to let me know they're not happy.”

“Yes sir.”

“Luckily, Quass Leghef has gone to bat for us and is taking some of the pressure off. She wants to know where the weapons are coming from too, and she's made sure the general knows that.”

Sage's hope rose a little. He didn't like the idea of not following up on the weapons trail, and there was no time like investigating while the trail was still hot. A few days, or even a few hours for that matter, and the trail to whoever sold those weapons to Vekaby and his ­people would vanish.

“General Whitcomb knows we have a limited window of time to act, so he's cleared your team for this follow-­up, but he wants to speak to both of us at oh eight hundred in the morning.”

“Yes sir.”

“You and your ­people are up for this?”

“Yes sir. I wouldn't have it any other way.”

“Then get moving, Top. Good luck.”

As the jumpcopter cleared the rooftop and headed back to the fort with the prisoners, Sage gathered his team.

Offworlders' Bazaar

Makaum Sprawl

0132 Hours Zulu Time

Sage left the crawlers a block from the Offworlders' Bazaar with a driver in each vehicle to provide support in case they needed an exit strategy. The air support—­both jumpcopters, now that delivery of the prisoners had been accomplished—­was left in the area too, so they wouldn't alert the Cheapdock personnel. Then, dressed in cloaks that blunted the straight edges of their armor, the remaining six soldiers followed Noojin and Jahup into the area while maintaining comm silence.

Noojin and Jahup were used to working together as scouts and hunters, and they had been to the Offworlders' Bazaar on several occasions, so Sage had them lead the troops in. Corporal Culpepper walked slack, covering the soldiers with a heavy plasma blaster that was barely hidden under the cloak.

At the northern end of the bazaar, a three-­story building stood above a loose ring of one-­ and two-­story buildings that all faced the dirt-­packed courtyard. Sporadic lights lit the rooms and sec lanterns hung over the entrance to the main building, keeping the darkness at bay.

Keeping ten meters apart, Noojin and Jahup stayed to the right and kept to the shadows as much as they could. Other ­people walked through the marketplace, but they kept to themselves and all conversations were low rumbles. A few of the shops were open, nearly all of them catering to vices: flesh and drugs and alcohol.

The offworlder businesses looked grafted onto the old Makaum buildings. The neon and sec shields and vids stuck out like cancerous growths against the smooth symmetry of the buildings grown from trees and built from cut stone. The bazaar had been built to be a permanent fixture for the Makaum ­people.

Sage remained amazed at the changes the corps had wrought in the amount of time they'd arrived before Fort York had been established. He'd seen vid of Makaum as it had been when it was discovered. The sprawl had been primitive by comparison to what it now was, and several areas still remained so.

But the sins of the universe had come knocking. In one generation, the planet would be so changed that the new generation would have little in common with the last. Technology transformed things that fast, mostly because it homogenized all the cultures in an area into one entity. It didn't build bonds as much as it dropped everything into the lowest common denominator.

They skirted the area and kept moving.

Outside Cheapdock

North of Makaum Sprawl

0145 Hours Zulu Time

Cheapdock lay to the northeast of the bazaar three klicks distant. Small shuttles from cargo ships and space stations landed there when they couldn't get a berth at the main ports. Cheapdock was an oval that was 2.3 klicks in diameter across its widest point east to west and 1.9 klicks north to south. The stardock was open-­ended from east to west and had hangars and cargo areas on the north and south sides that were several buildings deep.

It was the old port, quickly built and used by the corps when Makaum had been discovered, then quickly abandoned when the profits started to roll in and the new starport was built. The Terran Army fort planners had considered the site for the post, but they were too far away from the sprawl to be as effective as the Terran Alliance wanted them to be. On top of that, Cheapdock was separated from the sprawl by a slow-­moving river, seventy-­three meters across and eighteen meters deep, which provided a natural choke point for a land-­based attack.

The corps had built a retractable bridge across the river, which was controlled by bashhounds on the Cheapdock side. Green Dragon Corp still managed the bridge, provided upkeep, and charged for access, but the execs also ran a lot of the black market as well.

Sage and his ­people stayed off the main road and stuck to the north side of the slope so they could peer down on the terrain. They made their way through the jungle and only had to dispatch a few predators before they reached the Tekyl River.

Crouched along the bank, Sage studied the river. The retractable bridge was 217.4 meters downriver. The jungle had been cleared out at either end and bashhounds stood guard in small forts on either bank as well. Drones sailed along the surface of the water and swept the waterway.