Marianne's Abduction (10 page)

As
he drifted off to sleep again, River sent up a silent prayer that their fates
were with each other.
Because he’d rather lose his own life
than lose Marianne.

Chapter
Ten

Marianne
sat quietly next to Callie, and listened to Vaughn, River, Thane, Rune, and
Jakara outline the plan, but inside she was screaming. There were so many
uncertainties. Each minute was planned out, except for the amount of time
they’d be inside Atkins Prison because they had no control over that. If one
step failed, the entire plan would fall apart. They had back-ups, but there
were only so many contingencies they could plan for.

The
first step was to get them on Voyeur Moon, and to do that Vaughn, River, Thane,
and Rune were posing as Zoo guards. Three of the guards currently assigned to
the Zoo were undercover Addonians, and had procured uniforms and credentials
for them. Marianne thought they were out of their minds. “What if your
credentials are checked?”

“They
won’t be,” said Thane. “As long as
we
believe we’re guards and act like everyone else, no one will suspect a thing.”

“But
what excuse are you giving for flying there in the first place?”

Rune
grinned wickedly. “The four guards whose credentials we’ve copied will
mysteriously find themselves on Earth, with no way to contact their superiors
or get home.”

“Until
a transport shows up and they tell them what happened,” said Callie, quietly.

“By
that time,” said Jakara, “Blake and Betsy Williams will be safely out of Atkins
Prison, and no one will be able to trace this back to us.”

“You
kidnapped four Zoo guards?” asked Marianne.

“Not
kidnapped,” said Rune. “Vito, Daven, Rygal, and Tallis are merely diverting
their spacecraft.”

“How?”

He
and Thane exchanged a glance and then laughed. “Four men on Addo have decided
to join the Tyranns, and they were chosen to be Zoo guards. We found this out
just last week when Vito intercepted a radio transmission. He monitors them on
Addo and Sera, looking for people on both planets who attempt communication
with Voyeur Moon.”

“We
got lucky with this piece of information,” said Vaughn. “We decided to use this
by having Vito, Daven, Rygal, and Tallis
pose
as
pilots and navigators from Addo, heading for Voyeur Moon to work for the
Tyranns. They got in touch with the four men going there to work as Zoo guards,
and asked if they could hitch a ride.”

“Then
once they’re on board,” said Thane, “they will overpower the real Zoo guards
and put them to sleep, using the same medication the Tyranns use on Earth
people so they survive the hyper jump that brings them here. Then they’ll take
the craft to Earth and leave them there. After that, they will join us on
Voyeur Moon with their fake identities already in place, just in case.”

“So
the Tyranns only know about the Zoo guards,” said Marianne. “That’s all they’re
expecting to show up.”

River
nodded.
“Exactly.
But the real Zoo guards don’t know
that. They never questioned it.”

Marianne
shook her head.
“Pure genius.
But what is the second
step?”

“We’re
going to Atkins to pick up two men assigned to the Zoo,” said River. “Betsy
will be disguised as a man once we’re on the way back to the spacecraft.”

“But
what if they recognize you inside the prison? Someone might notice their
reaction.”

Vaughn
grinned. “We have people working inside the prison, too. He’s going to let them
know what’s going on so they can play it cool.”

“Can
you trust these people?” she asked.

“With
our lives,” said River. “They’ve worked for us now for over a year. They know
what they’re doing.”

“But
are there really two prisoners assigned to the Zoo?”

River
shook his head. “No. We hacked into the database and falsified that part. All
the guards out front will know is that we’re there to pick up two prisoners for
the Zoo, and their records will show that. Our contacts on the inside are
responsible for making sure it’s your aunt and uncle who are brought to the
front when we arrive.”

“How
will you get word to them?”

“We
have a system of codes,” said Vaughn. “Don’t worry about that part. This isn’t
our first time springing people from a prison on Voyeur Moon.”

“Okay.
But how do you get my aunt and uncle on a ship once you have them? You’re
supposed to be bringing two men to the Zoo. Won’t that be tracked?”

Vaughn
bit his lip. “That’s the tricky part.”

“I
don’t like the sound of that,” said Callie.

“They’re
taking four prisoners from Atkins back to the ship,” said Jakara, “But only two
will be recorded. The other two are decoys. They’ll be the ones delivered to
the Zoo.”

“Who
are they?” asked Marianne.

River
gave her a sheepish look. “Let’s just say that sometimes prisoners on
transports go missing, and even the Tyranns can’t find them, and leave it at
that.”

“Excuse
me?”

“Marianne,
no one was harmed,” said Vaughn. “These are men convicted of true crimes. We
merely had some of our people ambush a transport, and in the diversion, two
prisoners went missing. We’re … holding them for now until we need them.
Which will be when we leave Atkins.
”

“Holding
them where?” asked Callie.

This
time, it was Jakara’s turn to give Callie a sheepish look. “Remember when I
told you how very few people lived near my home on Voyeur Moon? We have a house
on the other side of the hills that we use for purposes like this. That’s where
the men are right now. About five minutes from Atkins Prison, right under the
Tyranns’ noses.”

“Holy
shit,” whispered Marianne. “So you plan to pick up my aunt and uncle, get these
other two men, and take
them
to the
Zoo instead? But don’t they have names or something that they track?”

“Prisoners
inside Atkins have ID bracelets with bar codes,” said Thane. “We made fake ones
to match the fake names we entered into the database. Once we have the men,
we’ll simply switch them, and destroy the ones your aunt and uncle are wearing.”

“But
how will you get my aunt and uncle onto the ship without being seen?”

“You
let us worry about that,” said Rune. “We’re very good at creating diversions.”

“What
about the ship itself? Can’t they identify them?”

“It’s
a Tyrann craft,” said Thane. “We
procured
it.” The men all chuckled.

Marianne
shook her head. She didn’t ask how they’d stolen a Tyrann spacecraft. There
were so many things that could go wrong with this plan that she stopped
counting because she knew she’d lose her mind otherwise. “God save us all.”

Because
Jakara might be too easily recognized by someone on Voyeur Moon, he was to stay
behind in the quarters with Marianne and Callie. He had instructions to take
Marianne and Callie to Sera if anything went wrong.

“We
have contacts inside the Ministry who will keep us safe,” said Vaughn. “They
know you might be coming there to live, and they will make sure you’re kept
hidden from the Tyranns if this goes south.”

“And Callie and Jakara?
What will they do?”

“Go
into hiding again, possibly on Sera.”

She
stared into Vaughn and River’s eyes. “But if anything goes wrong, I might never
see you two again.”

They
both held her close. “We are not going to let that happen,” said River.” He
kissed her. “We
will
come back to
you, Marianne.”

“You’d
better,” she whispered, trying hard not to cry.

They
each kissed her so many times, and whispered how much they loved her, that
Thane and Rune had to pry them away from her. She kept her composure until she
watched them board the ship with Thane and Rune, the four of them dressed as
Tyrann guards. Then she put a hand over her mouth to stifle a scream as the
craft lifted off the ground, and stood outside watching until long after she
could no longer see it.

Finally,
Callie gently led her back inside. “Come on. Jakara found a way to bring up
free cell on Vaughn’s computer. He’s been trying for months.”

Marianne
almost smiled, grateful that they were trying to distract her with something
familiar, but she knew she couldn’t sit at a computer and play a game right
now. She only wanted them back here, and she wanted her aunt and uncle with
them. Nothing else would make her feel safe or happy ever again.

She
loved Vaughn and River with her entire heart and soul, and she always would.

****

Vaughn
wanted to ask River to turn the ship around as soon as they cleared Addonian
air space. He kept picturing the look on Marianne’s face as they’d boarded,
after
he
and River both turned to wave to her one more
time. She looked like she was certain she’d never see them again, and his heart
had nearly burst.

Vaughn
wasn’t worried about this part of the plan. The ship with the real guards had already
left, and those same guards would soon be on Earth with no way to contact the
Tyranns or get back here. They knew when the scheduled raids occurred, and
another one wouldn’t happen for forty-eight hours. By the time the real guards
convinced those flying the transports to Earth who they were, this would be
done, one way or the other.

And
the guards wouldn’t be able to identify who had knocked them out, regardless.
They didn’t know Vito,
Daven
,
Rygal
,
or
Tallis
by name because the four had used fake ones.
All they’d be able to tell the Tyranns was that the men had told them they were
navigators and pilots coming to work on Voyeur Moon, and that they’d put them
to sleep as soon as the ship was in the air. When they’d woken, they’d found
themselves on Earth with their uniforms and credentials missing.

That
part hadn’t been necessary to the plan since Vaughn, River, Thane, and Rune
already had credentials and uniforms, but Jakara thought it would be a fitting
touch to leave the four guards on Earth with no clothing and no ID.

Less
than twenty minutes after their ship left
Addo
, Vaughn
and River heard from
Jakara
.
Rygal
,
Daven
, Vito, and
Tallis
had
deposited the real guards on Earth, and they were on their way to rendezvous
with Vaughn, River, Thane, and Rune on Voyeur Moon. There was no turning back
now.

This
plan would work. It
had
to. Because
all he wanted to do was hold Marianne in his arms again, and then continue
holding her for the rest of his life.

Once
they were in Tyrann air space, it didn’t take long for their radio to crackle.
The voice asked for identification, and River sounded
so
smooth and confident as he told them a big fat lie. The voice on the other end
didn’t even hesitate as it told them they were cleared for landing on Voyeur
Moon.

They
had contacts inside the Zoo, and they’d been in place for a while now. Those
contacts had arranged for Vaughn, River, Thane, and Rune to be the guards
assigned to travel to Atkins and pick up the two prisoners, again by hacking
into the Tyranns’ computer systems.

They
had talked about simply trying to arrange to have this ship fly directly to
Atkins, but had been advised by their moles inside that it would have been
outside the normal procedures to do that. Ships flew from the Zoo to Atkins if
there were prisoners to pick up, not directly to the prison from off the
planet.

But
even though all those things had fallen into place to allow them to get this
far, Vaughn knew it was still a risky plan. If even one Tyrann got suspicious
and did a little digging, they would be exposed. He wasn’t worried about being
recognized, but if the Tyranns were tipped off that the four might not be who
they seemed to be, they’d be detained, and then it would all be over.

As
the ship landed on Voyeur Moon, Vaughn pictured Marianne’s face. He’d hold that
image in his mind until this was over, and he was once again in her arms.
Because that was the only thing keeping him going right now.

****

River
stepped off the ship behind Vaughn, Thane, and Rune. As he handed his fake
credentials to Harrington, the current Warden of the Zoo, he held his breath
and looked straight ahead. The man nodded once, barely gave him a second
glance, and then took the credentials from Thane. Only then did River dare to
exhale.

Once
they were on a ground transport, heading west toward Atkins Prison, River
finally spoke. “Step one down.
Only four more to go.”

Vaughn
was driving them, with River next to him in the front seat, and Thane and Rune
in the second seat behind them. The back area of the transport was accessible
by a locked door with heavy bars on it and the window, and thick glass on both.
That area was where they’d have to put Blake and Betsy, alongside the two
prisoners currently being held in the safe house.