Hammer's War 1: Forging the Hammer (21 page)

The man tried to answer, but Thad was in no mood to listen.  The butt of the rifle struck the man in the mouth.  Teeth and blood flew from his mouth as he head recoiled from the blow.  Thad stood up, backed up a few feet, “You and your people attacked the wrong damn town!”  Thad squeezed the trigger and held it until the bolt on the weapon locked back.  The man was riddled with bullets, large pieces of flesh torn away.  Thad spit on the man’s corpse.  His finger punched the magazine release and he left the empty were it fell.  Thad slid another into place and slapped the bolt it dropped down and slammed forward.

Carl
fired up the grill and was busy preparing food to feed the survivors.  Word must have gotten out it was safe again. Survivors were checking in, looking for lost family and friends.  Doc Burton, with the help of Fiona and the others who were not wounded, moved all the wounded up to the dining area where they had better light and more room to work.  They would have taken them back to Doc’s office, but it was now no more than a pile of burning ashes.

Eve and Archie arrived.  Eve walked into Bob’s carrying a small black box with a touch screen.  She found Thad
behind the bar with a tablet checking off the living, trying to put together a list of the dead and missing.  “I’m here dear,” she said.

Thad looked up from the tablet, “Great
, have Archie start unloading the supplies.  Oh, by the way how much did you bring?”

Eve smiled, “Well I brought all of it of course,” she held up the DDSD (digital dimensional storage device).

Thad smiled for the first time that day, “The DDSD, oh Eve you are brilliant!”

“I know,” was all she said.

Thad and the others spent what was left of the daylight helping set up medical gear.  After an hour, Bob’s was transformed from a bar into a make shift hospital.  The lightest of the wounded were treated inside and the more heavily wounded were treated in a large medical tent that was set up by Archie, and a small army of fabrication robots.  The town’s folk funneled in carrying wounded and their dead.  Thad was happy to see as many of them alive as he did.  

The twins
decided to take charge of the children.  Freya looked for the parents, while Fiona and Eve took the kids to one of the last standing buildings in town.  There they made sure they were fed, bathed, and given new clothing. Eve had taken one of the fabrication bots for herself.  This bot was turning out new toys as fast as it could. 

As the
night dragged on, most of the children were reunited with at least one parent, or if they were really lucky, two.  However, there were a few unfortunate children who were now orphans.  Carl and Jenna stepped up and took them in, and promised to raise them as their own.   

It was some time in the early morning when
Doctor Burton came to Thad, “Thank you for all your help, but there is nothing more you can do tonight.  Go home, get some rest.”

Thad wanted to protest, but he remembered he had the enemy team leader under restraints back at
the compound and he was the key to Thad’s first move.  He bid the Doctor and the others good night, and then directed Archie to stay with the fabrication bots and help start rebuilding.  Thad wanted people have a place for people to go as soon as possible.  Before leaving, Thad and the twins made sure no one went to sleep without warm food in their bellies and a soft warm bed to sleep in. 

Back at the compound, Eve brought food to their prisoner.  She had him locked in the holo-room
, in a jail cell she had created for this very purpose.  She slid the food tray through the cell door. Because it was a holo-cell, there was no need for a food slot in the door.  She just interrupted the force field, which held the photons comprising the door.  To the prisoner it seemed as if the food just appeared on his side of the door.  She did this because she was still upset about Rhonda and did not want to see this man for fear of losing control and hurting him. 

Thad chose to let the prisoner stew.  He was
far too tired deal with him, chose to confront him after catching a few hours of rack time.  The twins were already in bed, fast asleep, when he climbed into bed next to them.  He lay there wondering how he was going to live with the knowledge that all those people died because of him.  He had signed their death warrants the minute he set foot on this rock.  Sleep only came to him as a result of shee
r
exhaustion.

After a few hours of restless sleep
, Thad woke.  He brought the prisoner some food and opened the cell door.  Thad walked in and handed the food tray to the man in the cell.  “Eve, a chair please,” a chair materialized next to him.  He sat, “My name is Thaddeus Hammer, but of course you know that already.  You’re a smart guy so I’m sure you have figured out by now that your team is dead, your mission failed and you are in a world of shit.”

“Yeah I kind of figured that,” he pointed to the cell around him. 

“Sense you know my name, how about you tell me yours?” Thad asked.

“Well what the
Hell, it can’t do any more harm.  Reinke, First Lieutenant Federation Special Forces, Command Group One, but I’m sure you already knew that,” Reinke said.

“I didn’t, but thanks for the information
,” Thad said as he watched the expression on the man’s face drop.  “So, wondering why I didn’t kill you with the rest of your men?”  Thad leaned back in the chair.

“It had crossed my mind,” he said. 

“I want to send a message to your employers.”  Thad said.

The prisoner smirked, “And I’m to be the messenger?”

“You catch on quick, I see why they made you a lieutenant,” Thad said.

“Look, before you do whatever you are going to do to me can I ask you something?

Thad nodded.

“What happened to you?  Why did you leave us and go running off?” 
Reinke asked.

“I’m not sure you understand, but the man you may have known is dead.  He died three years ago.  The only thing that is left of him is just bits of broken memories. 
This is where you come in. I was hoping you could help fill in some of the blanks.”  Thad leaned forward watching a bead of sweat form on the team leader's nose.

“What makes you think I will tell you anything?”

Thad grinned, “You already have, but I really don’t expect you to tell me anything of any real value.”

“I don’t follow you.  You want answers, but you don’t expect me to tell you,”
Reinke said with a puzzled look on his face.

“Like I said, I don’t care if you talk or not.  I want you to go back to your boss and tell him that I am coming for him.  He fired the first shot in this war and I will fire the last.  Tell him that I am going to take him and his organization apart person by person.” 

“I got it, tell the brass that you are starting a one man crusade.  So what now, torture?”

Thad stood up and walked slowly around the cell, “Torture?  No I have something better in mind.”  Thad had positioned himself behind Reinke.  “
The only thing I need from you now is to hold still.”

Puzzled, Reinke started to turn his head towards Thad, “Hold still?”

“There might be a bit of a prick,” Thad stuck him in the neck with a needle full of sedative.  The man slumped over in the chair.  “A prick for a prick.”

The next thing that Reinke
knew he was sitting next to a pile of body bags, in a lonely patch of desert. Next to him was his subspace radio.  He looked around for Thad, but there was no one in sight for miles.  He guessed Thad was being true to his word, letting him go, back to his boss, to deliver the message. 
Well
, he thought,
call for pick up, or die out here in the desert
.  He picked up the radio and keyed the mike, “Tact Team One ready for pick up.  Authentication code bravo niner six, niner, four, four, hotel, over.”

A voice came over his radio, “Roger
Team One, authentication is good, inbound five minutes to pick up, stand by.”

A stealth ship had been in orbit waiting for the code to retrieve the team.  A small shuttle left its bay and headed for the moon’s surface.

Five minutes to the second passed when a black drop ship zoomed out of the sky and set down next to the pile of bodies.  The loading ramp extended and two men in black flight suits, and helmets, carrying laser rifles, stepped out.  They took a look at the pile of body bags, “Shit, what happened?”

He walked up to them, “Things went bad
, very bad.  Now shut up and load the bodies.”

Thad watched through the scope of his sniper rifle as they loaded the bodies, closed the ramp, and took off, “So far, so good.”

Two weeks later, on Nova Texas:

Thorne was sitting in his office reading the mission report filed by the surviving team member.  He was not happy, but he had been a soldier a long, long time and knew that things don’t always go your way, or as the old battlefield saying goes, “Shit happens.”  His problem was he had no idea how Counsel Woman Sexton was going to react.  The intercom buzzed, “Yes
,” he said.

“Lieutenant
Reinke is here for debrief Sir,” the voice of his secretary said.

“Thank you Major
, send him in,” Thorne sat his tablet down on the desk in front of him.

The door opened and
Reinke walked in, the man who had just botched the snatch and grab operation.  He stood tall at attention, “Sir.”

Thorne
said, “At ease.  Why don’t you take a seat, you are going to be here for a while.”

He did as he was told.  He sat in the only other chair in the room.  It was suspiciously placed just in front of Thorne’s desk.

“I have read your mission report.  I have to say, it sounds as if he was ready for you.  You did the best you could under the conditions?”

“Yes Sir!”  Reinke glanced toward the door.  

“Oh, I
’m not done.  You are not off the hook yet.  You cost me six good assets and a whole sanitation team, and that is unacceptable.  You should have died with your men.  The question is why you didn’t?”  Thorne asked as he leaned forward.

“As I stated in my report
Sir, I was neutralized and taken prisoner,” Reinke said.

“I understand that.  What I don’t understand is why he let you go?  Why he return
ed the bodies of the dead?”

“To send a message Sir.
He wants you to know he is gunning for you.  He is out for blood, yours, mine, everyone in this organization,” Reinke said. “You started a war and he intends to finish it.”

This sent Thorne
into a rage, “That son of bitch! He did tell me once, if we came after him, it would be war.  Well if it’s war he wants, war is what he’ll get!  However, this could not come at a worse time.  We are in the middle of the biggest and most dangerous operation our organization has ever undertaken.  I don’t need a rogue operative out there, who thinks he is on some kind of holy quest.  No way, for operational security, he has to be brought in or terminated.”  He was fuming, “As for you, I understand what happened, however you still failed and I do not accept failure!”

Thorne was so angry he did not stop to think of the kill chip.  He opted for the antique colt model 1911
, which had been in his family for generations.  He pulled the pistol out and just before he pulled the trigger, Reinke said softly, “Demons run.”

That stopped Thorne for a second, “What does that mean?”

“It was something one of his wives said to me.  She said, ‘Demons run when a good man goes to war, and you bastards better start running’.”

“Nonsense,” Thorne yelled at him. 
Reinke did not flinch. He had known he was a dead man, the minute Thad let him go.  Thorne pulled the trigger again and again until the pistol slide locked back.

The force of the bullets knocked
Reinke back into the chair.  He sat there, blood oozing from six holes in his chest.  His chest stopped moving and with no breath left in him, Thorne was confident Reinke was dead.  Thorne walked around the desk and checked his pulse, there was nothing, but something just was not right.  He saw a small lump on the side of Renike’s neck. He noticed it because a faint red light started to blink under the dead man’s skin.

Thorne jumped back when he heard a voice come from the dead man’s open mouth, “
Hello Thorne.”

Thorne recovered himself, “Well
Hello Marcus, or should I call you Thad.”

“Only my friends can call me Thad
, and you are no friend of mine,” Thad said, watching Thorne through the dead man’s eyes.  The implants they had installed were working perfectly and had no need for the man to be alive just have his eyelids open.

Trying to stay composed Thorne said, “No I guess not.  However it doesn’t change the fact that I always win and sooner or later I will get you
, and when I do you will wish you had died out there in the desert.” 

Thad was beyond angry,
but he was not going to let Thorne know it, “Big words from a man who sends others to do his dirty work.  By the way, how did that go for you?  Oh that’s right your grab team is dead at my hands and your sanitation team wiped by the very people they were sent to kill.”

Thorne was not a man used to being insult
ed or losing, “Yes that was unfortunate, but that is the game.”

Thad let a little anger slip out, “Game!  You think war is a game
?”

The side of Thorne’s mouth lifted slightly at the thought he could get under Thad’s skin.  Thorne rounded the desk and sat down to carry on the strange and morbid conversation, “War is always a game, and people are nothing more than pawns to
be moved and lost at the whims of those who are in power.”

Thad realized Thorne was trying to
goad him into saying something rash, but he could not help himself, “Well this pawn is tired of being moved by the likes of you.  I am going to burn you and your organization to the ground.”

The smirk on Thorne’s face got bigger
, he knew he was getting to Thad, “So how many were sanitized before the team was neutralized, ten, fifty, a hundred?”

Thad’s hands were balled into tight fists, but he got control of his anger, “Yes
, you killed a lot of good people that night, but they will be your last.”

Thorne laughed, “
My last?  Thorne waited but there was nothing but silence.  “What no witty remark?”

An eerie silence fell over the conversation, but
Thad finally spoke and his tone was ice cold, “I am coming for you.”

The smirk on Thorne’s face dropped, “
I welcome it.”

“Well Thorne, consider this my shot across your bow.”  The corpse started beeping.

“Oh Shit!” Thorne yelled as he slammed the panic button on his desk.  Two marines and a major charged into the room with laser rifles at the ready.  The Major asked, “Are you okay Sir?”

“Get out, get everyone out right now.  Clear the floor!  He
’ sent us back a God damn bomb, a fucking walking bomb!”

Running for the stairs, he could hear the beeping fade behind him.
Over the loud speakers the computer voice was saying, “We have a bomb threat.  This is not a drill.  Please make your way calmly to the nearest exit,” it kept repeating.

Thorne had cleared the first flight of the many he would have to descend to get out, when the bomb exploded.  The stairwell door one flight above him was blown off its hinges and through the opposite wall.  The force of the pressure wave flashing down the stairwell knocked Thorne off his feet and sent him tumbling down the stairs.  He landed hard on the stairwell landing.  Everything went dark for a few seconds before the emergency lighting kicked on. 

Bells were ringing in his ears and he could feel blood running down his face.  He had landed on his wrist, which had snapped with a crunching sound.  He was covered in dust, with small cuts and bruises, but otherwise unharmed.

All the news channels across the universe
were showing various camera angles outside of the building when the bomb went off.  The footage showed glass, dust and other things flying out of the building’s sixtieth floor.  Reports were still coming in. So far, there were no reported deaths, but many people were reporting injuries from falling glass.  The building was reported to be an office for a space mining company headquarters and they were expected to make a statement soon. 

Thad had seen enough.  He switched off the monitor.  Fiona was watching with him, “So, why did we have to blow up the six
tieth floor of a high-rise building?”

“To find them, blowing up a floor on the building is
a dead giveaway.  It’s a big smoke signal telling us where to look for Thorne and his crew of murdering bastards.”  Thad said, and then kissed her forehead.

“It’s too bad we had to hurt innocent people,” she said.

“Yeah, that was not part of the plan.  I’ll have to talk to Eve about the amount of explosives she used,” he said.

“Thad honey, I don’t understand
how they missed the bomb.  Don’t they have scanners for that?”  She asked.

“Gees
e, you are full of questions today,” she frowned at him.  He laughed, “You are so cute when you wrinkle up your nose.”  That earned him a punch to the arm.  “Okay, watch it slugger.  The reason they did not pick it up was because we wrapped it in plastaflesh.  It naturally blocks the scanner beams.  However, I think, after this one somebody will figure out how to get around that.  As far as I know, we are the first to use plastaflesh to hide a bomb.”

“I
have one last question, if it’s not too taxing to your brain,” she said, crossing her arms.

“Oh I think I can manage one more question my love, but after that, I think I will have to take you to the bedroom, strip off your clothes, and make you pay for all this valuable information.”
He wrapped his arms around her waist.

Fiona laughed, “Okay sure
. So now we know where they are, but how do we get there and more importantly what do we do when we are there?”

He pulled her close and brushed her lips
with his, “Ah, that is two questions, and I’m not sure I’m up to it.”

She laughed again, “Oh
, I’m quite sure you are up to it.  That or you have a gun in your pocket.”

“The answer to both of your questions is, leave it to me,” he said.

Fiona accepted his answer and jumped into his arms, “Okay you can now take and ravish me.”

“Yes
, my lady” he said carrying her to the bedroom.

Freya and Eve were downstairs talking, “Eve, Fiona, and I have been talking.  We know you really like Thad and after what Rhonda said we think, if you want to be a sister wife, we would love to have you as one.”

Eve hugged her, “Oh honey you are so sweet, but I think of Thad more like a son than a lover.  Besides, I don’t think I will ever love anyone like I loved Doctor Hammer.” 

Freya hugged her back, then arm in arm said, “Well then,
Mom let’s go pack.  We have a long way to go.”