Humanity Unlimited 1: Liberty Station

Liberty Station

Book One of Humanity Unlimited

by

Terry Mixon

Liberty Station

Humanity will be free, no matter the cost!

Deep in the Guatemalan jungle, buried beneath a forgotten Mayan pyramid, an earth-shattering secret sits waiting. Its discovery will rip apart the illusion that humanity is alone in the universe.

Engaged in a life and death struggle for the future of mankind, Harry Rogers and Jess Cook are forced to protect this secret from the most despicable foes imaginable. Failure means death for them and subjugation for everyone else.

Together, they must race across the globe to complete Liberty Station, the first true interplanetary ship, disguised as an orbital space hotel for the mega-wealthy. Only then can they search for the shocking truth behind what they've found.

Works by Terry Mixon

The Empire of Bones Saga

Empire of Bones

Veil of Shadows

Command Decisions

Ghosts of Empire (forthcoming)

Humanity Unlimited

Liberty Station

Anthologies Terry Has Appeared In

Dirty Magick: Los Angeles

Dirty Magick: New Orleans

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Liberty Station

Copyright 2015 by Terry Mixon

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including information storage and/or retrieval systems, or dissemination of any electronic version, without the prior written consent of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review, and except where permitted by law.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Published by Yowling Cat Press

Cover art - image copyrights as follows:

BigStockPhotos.com - goinyK

DepositPhotos.com - Antartis

DepositPhotos.com - lurii

DepositPhotos.com - steho

DepositPhotos.com - algolonline

Cover design and composition by Donna Mixon

She may be reached at:
[email protected]

Logo design by Emily Karnes

She may be reached at:
[email protected]

Dedication

This book wouldn’t exist without the support of my wife Donna and daughter Felina. I love you both very much.

Acknowledgements

This book wouldn’t have been possible without the support of my fans. Each and every one of you. The last few months have been tough in a personal sense, so every time one of you sent me a note letting me know how much you enjoyed my books, it made me smile. Thank you.

• Works By Terry Mixon
  
• Copyright Notices
  
• Chapter One
  
• Chapter Two
  
• Chapter Three
  
• Chapter Four
  
• Chapter Five
  
• Chapter Six
  
• Chapter Seven
  
• Chapter Eight
  
• Chapter Nine
  
• Chapter Ten
  
• Chapter Eleven
  
• Chapter Twelve
  
• Chapter Thirteen
  
• Chapter Fourteen
  
• Chapter Fifteen
  
• Chapter Sixteen
  
• Chapter Seventeen
  
• Chapter Eighteen
  
• Chapter Nineteen
  
• Chapter Twenty
  
• Chapter Twenty-One
  
• Chapter Twenty-Two
  
• Chapter Twenty-Three
  
• Chapter Twenty-Four
  
• Chapter Twenty-Five
  
• Chapter Twenty-Six
  
• Chapter Twenty-Seven
  
• Chapter Twenty-Eight
  
• Chapter Twenty-Nine
  
• Chapter Thirty
  
• Chapter Thirty-One
  
• Preview of Empire of Bones
  

Chapter One

Harry Rogers watched the target’s house through his night vision scope. A guard patrolled the roof of the Italian villa slowly, with no idea that someone had him dead in his sights. Satisfied the guard wasn’t going anywhere, Harry clicked his transmitter once to let his team know he was ready. A pair of clicks on the encrypted frequency acknowledged his signal.

The other members of his team were already in place. All they needed to move this mission from recon to assault was for him to give the word.

He scanned the rooftop once more and spotted a second guard near the rear of the house. That one was smoking. Didn’t he know that was bad for his health?

Harry clicked his transmitter three times. Then he took a deep breath, lined up on the furthest man, and fired. The target stood just over two hundred feet away from the tree Harry had chosen for his nest. That range was a snap with a sniper rifle, but chancy with a tranquillizer dart. Good thing he’d practiced.

The man made a small cry, scrabbled at the dart embedded in his back, and collapsed. The closer man turned toward the commotion, giving Harry a clear shot at his unprotected rear. He went down just as easily as his friend had.

His people checked in once they’d neutralized the two guards at the back of the property, the two in front, and the man in the gatehouse. Time to move the operation to phase two.

Harry climbed down the Italian stone pine as noiselessly as he’d ascended. Tree climbing spikes made the ascent easy.

The tall trees at the edge of the yard made for dark shadows this early in the morning. He enjoyed their scent as he made his way toward the clearing. A hint of the sea mingled with the trees. He really needed to take some time off to unwind.

He crossed the clearing below the imposing mansion and up to the back of the villa just as his people were securing the unconscious prisoners. The next set of guards would find them just before dawn and the manhunt would be on. The clock was ticking.

Less than a minute later, the rest of his people ghosted in out of the dark. They were almost invisible in their grey on black camouflage. Their night vision goggles made them look like monsters to the uninitiated.

If this had been a hard entry, they’d have blown the doors and come in firing. He and his people had more experience at that than any seven people should have. War did that to people.

Thankfully, this was a snatch and run. They’d only kill if they had to. These guards were only doing their job. They didn’t deserve to die for their master’s poor decisions.

That wasn’t always the case. Some opponents deserved lethal force.

The interior guards on this mission expected their exterior compatriots to warn them of any intrusion. Hopefully, his people would take them out before they realized their error.

Jeremy Gonzales, his security expert, had the doors open in just a few seconds. The target hadn’t activated the electronic alarm. Of course not. He had armed guards. Harry and his team raised their night vision gear as they came into the lighted interior.

The staff lived on site, but in a different building. At three in the morning, they wouldn’t be up for a few more hours. All Harry needed to worry about were the two guards in the building. IR had one of them in the kitchen—probably snacking, another bad habit—while the other was up on the second floor.

The team split without a word. Two of them moved toward the kitchen, two of them went toward the front of the house, and he led the remaining pair up the stairs.

The interior of the villa was every bit as lavish as he’d expected. Fine antique furniture filled the side rooms and expensive looking art filled the niches. The thick carpeting deadened even their careful steps as they went up to the next level.

A tiny fiber optic wire around the corner showed the upstairs guard examining one of the paintings near the far end of the hall. The man had a magnifying glass. He must be an art lover.

Harry leaned out into the hall and shot him in the ass with a dart. That was going to be tough for him when his friends teased him later.

That’s where the plan went off script. This guard managed to bring his weapon around and squeeze the trigger before he collapsed.

Harry ducked back as the automatic weapon ripped through the silence and disintegrated the corner beside him. The man only got off one burst, but that was enough to ruin the element of surprise. Hopefully it wouldn’t be loud enough to wake the staff.

“Blow the power and communications,” he said over the team channel as he surged around the corner. He flipped his night vision gear down just as the lights went out. They’d cut the landline and a cell jammer would keep anyone from calling for help.

He raced to the end of the hall and kicked the door open. There were two people in the room, a very fat man digging in the nightstand and a shrieking woman in the bed with the sheet pulled up to her chin.

Harry darted the man and watched him crumple with a sense of satisfaction. A second shot took out the unknown woman. She’d wake up in the morning with a headache and damaged pride.

There hadn’t been any shots from below, so his people had neutralized the man in the kitchen. Clean sweep.

He made a pass through the bedroom and attached office, just to be certain that no one was hiding there. The master bedroom could’ve come from a palace. The NVG didn’t allow him to see color, but the furnishings here looked even more refined than the ones downstairs. They had to be hundreds of years old.

The office wasn’t just for show. It looked as though the man used it extensively. The large desk had a messy spread of papers and data chips. Expensive paintings covered the walls and a few cases held knick-knacks. Mostly Egyptian stuff, Harry thought.

A spread of old looking parchment pages under glass took up one wall. The illustrations of plants and people looked medieval. The flora had to be a monk’s flight of fancy. He was sure some of them weren’t real.

Satisfied that they hadn’t missed anyone, Harry headed back to the hall. It was time to collect the client and withdraw. He stopped outside the door closest to the master bedroom and knocked.

“Emily Schultz, your mother sent us. It’s safe to come out. She said to tell you that she’d take you out with your friends Hannah and Cheryl as soon as you get back to the States. I believe cinnamon swirl ice cream is on the menu.”

The door opened a moment later, revealing a young girl with dark hair dressed in a nightgown. Ten year-old Emily Schultz, the kidnapped girl. Her scumbag father had thought his money and influence could keep her American mother from enforcing the custodial agreement that the U.S. courts had ordered. Not this time.

“Am I really going home?” she asked. Her voice was timid and soft.

“Yes,” Harry said in a serious voice. “Dress fast. We only have a few minutes. Only take the important stuff. One bag.”

One of the two women on his team ducked inside with the client. Two minutes later, they exited the way they’d snuck in. They piled into a plumbing van and left the scene at a sedate pace.

No need to draw attention. If you acted as though you belonged, the man on the street seldom questioned your right to be there. In the case of service people, they rarely even remembered what you looked like.

The trip to the coast went off without a hitch. No word of their invasion had made it out of the house, so no one had raised the alarm. Harry looked at his watch as they hustled the girl from the van to their borrowed boat. They still had maybe an hour before someone found all the unconscious people.

Unless they had completely crappy luck, they’d be back on the ship and into international waters before the search even moved beyond the general area around the villa. The man driving the boat would take them to their ship, return to shore, and get the plumbing van back to his shop before anyone got excited. He’d get a very large bonus for his part in the operation.

Harry didn’t relax until they were several hundred miles in the clear. The news was all over the airwaves by then. Girl from rich family kidnapped, police looking everywhere for the villains. Good luck with that.

Only then did he turn on his satellite phone and call the girl’s mother. She hadn’t known when the snatch would take place, so she had to have been anxious for the last week. It was almost three in the morning on the East Coast.