Sullivan Saga 1: Sullivan's War (13 page)

FRANK ALLEN HADN’T been hard to find. The agents had moved hotels since Sullivan’s first encounter with Allen, but when Bureau agents were around, word spread fast. From across the street, Sullivan watched the hotel. He’d had some of Brain’s men create a distraction so he could sneak away from the warehouse and had spent the last six hours tracking and observing the agents. He’d heard that one of the agents had been killed, and he had watched Ives and Wagner leave. He checked his watch. Presumably, they were going to get dinner. If Allen was in the hotel, he’d be alone.

Sullivan walked across the street and entered the hotel. He took a bottle of Dacian whiskey from his shoulder bag, placed it on the front desk and smiled at the desk attendant.

“I have a gift for my friend, but I forgot what room he’s in.”

“Sorry, can’t help you.”

Sullivan took another bottle from his bag. “I have an extra bottle here. My friend’s a lightweight. He only needs the one.”

The attendant took one of the bottles and put it behind the desk. “I suppose your friend wouldn’t want to miss a nice gift like this.”

Sullivan put the other bottle back in his bag. “No, he wouldn’t.”

“What’s his name?”

“Frank Allen.”

The attendant narrowed his eyes for a moment then turned to his computer screen and tapped at his keyboard. “Room three oh seven.”

“Thanks,” said Sullivan.

“Wait a minute.”

Sullivan turned back.

“We run a decent place here. Can you promise me there won’t be any trouble?”

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t drink too much,” said Sullivan.

The attendant shook his head and turned back to his computer.

Sullivan rode the elevator up. He got off at the third floor, found the room and knocked.

Frank Allen opened the door and, before he could draw his gun, Sullivan was inside and disarming him. Sullivan put his hand over Allen’s mouth and pinned his arm behind his back.

“Just wait, Agent Allen. Just relax. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Allen stopped struggling. He was strong, but Sullivan was stronger and had him at a disadvantage. He knew he wouldn’t be able to break out of the hold. Sullivan removed the hand over Allen’s mouth. “What do you want?” said Allen, trying to slow his breathing.

“I only want to talk, man to man. If I let you go, do you promise not to try and fight me?”

Allen tested the strength of the hold again. Sullivan was definitely too strong to take on without a gun. “I promise, Rick.”

Sullivan let Allen go. “Sit over there,” he said, motioning Allen to the chair by the window. “And close the drapes.”

Allen complied with the request. He relaxed as Sullivan put his gun away.

“What is it you want to talk about, Rick?”

“The future.”

Allen leaned back in the chair. “My favorite subject.”

“Look, I know you have your job to do. You want to take me in.”

“You killed two people on Earth, Rick.”

“But now you know why.”

“I know. They were crooked, I get that. But it’s not your job to carry out their punishment.”

“I had no choice. If that vote had gone through, Edaline’s leaders would have gotten the approval and protection of the Stellar Assembly. Any hope for change would have been destroyed.”

“Well, you certainly saw to it that Edaline stayed out of the SA. You accomplished your goal. So why not come in peacefully?”

“I’m not finished yet, Agent Allen. The people of Edaline are still not free. The government still has the power of the military backing them up. The only way to remove them is by force.”

“So you’re going to lead a one-man crusade against Edaline’s government?”

“No. I’m going to join the resistance, help organize it. But it’s not just about Edaline. You and I both know there are other planets—this one, for example—where the people suffer at the hands of the brutal and the corrupt. But if I can start something on Edaline, if people around the galaxy can see that there is hope for change, hope for a better life….”

Allen shook his head. “Very noble, to be sure, but nothing will happen if you die in the process. Or get captured. Come in peacefully, Rick. You’d rather be in SA custody than Edalinian custody, believe me on that. Then you can start a campaign for change from prison. You’ll be a semi-celebrity, reporters will write about you, your story will get out.”

Sullivan shook his head. “Agent Allen, there’s only one thing that will convince me to give up on this and surrender to you.”

“What’s that?”

“I need your help.”

“Well, if that’s what it takes, I’ll do what I can to further your cause, get your message out….”

“That’s not quite what I mean. What kind of operational clearance have you been given?”

“I’ve been given clearance to pursue and arrest anyone who has violated SA law.”

“Good. If you help me do something, I’ll surrender.”

“What is this something?”

“Do you know of a man named Orion Zednik?”

“Yes. I’ve met him, actually.”

“Eight months ago, he kidnapped a woman named Kate Alexander from her home planet of Silvanus. She was held in a cell next to mine until I helped her to escape.”

“He kidnapped her on Silvanus?”

“Yes.”

“That’s an Assembly planet. If I can get Miss Alexander to corroborate this story, then that is enough to arrest Zednik, if that’s what you’re after.”

“Suppose he’s taken her again. Would it be a continuation of the crime committed on Silvanus, even though the second kidnapping happened on a non-SA planet?”

Allen pursed his lips. “Well, it’d be for a judge to decide, but the way I see it, he kidnapped her and is currently detaining her. I’d say it’s part of the same crime.”

Sullivan nodded. “Here’s the deal I’m willing to make with you, Agent Allen. If you help me rescue Kate from Zednik, I’ll surrender peacefully.”

“Look, Rick, if I conduct a Bureau operation against Zednik, I can’t have a wanted fugitive at my side. It doesn’t work that way.”

Sullivan raised an eyebrow. “This is Abilene, Agent Allen. If this works out, you’ll go back to Earth with me and Zednik in custody. Kate Alexander will be safe and on her way home, and no one will worry about how you got it done."

“You care about her, don’t you?”

“More than you know.”

“I don’t understand you, Rick. You’re a good man, I can see that. How do you justify the things you’ve done?”

“Sometimes righteous causes need a little help from the Devil.”

“But doesn’t serving the Devil make you unrighteous?”

Sullivan stood. “Agent Allen, at some point in their lives, whether they want to or not, all good men serve the Devil. But I’m not asking you to do that. I’m just asking you to stand side by side with one of the damned.”

Allen stood and crossed over to Sullivan. He put out his hand. “I may regret this.”

Sullivan shook Allen’s hand. “I won’t.”

“What’s the plan?”

“I’m still working on it.”

Sullivan took Allen’s gun from his coat and handed it back to him. Allen took the weapon and holstered it.

“Thank you, Frank. I’ll be in touch.”

Allen nodded and shook Sullivan’s hand again before the other man turned and walked out of the room. As Allen moved to close the door, his foot kicked something. A bottle of Dacian whiskey rolled across the floor and came to rest against the wall. Allen picked it up, broke the seal and took a long drink.

18

YOUNGER HADN’T BEEN seen around for a few days. This worried Sullivan. Did Zednik know of Sullivan’s plan? Had he recalled Younger to help defend against it?

Either way, the plan wouldn’t be easy to pull off. Zednik’s compound was isolated and well protected from a ground attack. But Sullivan hadn’t planned a ground attack. Brain had dedicated a freighter to the operation, and that would be their way in.

Parked just outside the city behind a sand dune, Sullivan, Allen, Wagner, Ives and three of Brain’s men waited and listened as Brain and the rest of his forces pulled their trucks up to the front of the compound.

“All right, Rick,” said Brain over his earpiece. “We’ve drawn their attention. Get ready for the fireworks.”

Sullivan glanced at the monitor that was feeding them an image from a camera mounted in one of the trucks. From the towers on the corners of the compound’s wall, men could be seen training large-caliber guns on the trucks.

“Now!” Brain yelled. A missile streamed from Brain’s position and struck one of the guard towers. An explosion shook the camera, and once it stabilized, Sullivan could see the guard tower in ruins. The next moment, the camera went dead, apparently hit by the barrage of lead being fired from the second tower.

“Let’s go!” said Sullivan to the ship’s pilot.

The ship lifted off and quickly covered the kilometer and a half to the compound. As it descended, the pilot lowered the cargo door. Six meters off the ground, Sullivan looked out and saw that the men in the guard tower were turning their gun toward the ship. As the ship continued to descend, Sullivan raised his energy rifle and fired off three quick rounds, destroying the big mounted gun and killing one of the men.

The ship landed hard, and as soon as Sullivan turned his attention to the ground, more men began streaming from the building. As he started firing at Zednik’s men, the Bureau agents took their places beside him.

Sullivan paused to load another energy clip into his rifle. “Get the gate open!” he yelled to Brain’s men as he knocked the clip home. He raised his rifle again to cover the men as they sprinted out from behind the barricades that had been set up in the ship’s cargo hold. Despite the covering fire, two of them went down as soon as they cleared the enclosed protection of the ship.

The third made it around the side of the ship and disappeared from view.

“He’s not going to make it,” said Allen as he ducked behind the barrier to reload.

“Ives, check on him,” said Sullivan.

Ives backed away from the barrier and entered the cockpit to look out the front of the ship, toward the compound’s gate. He returned a moment later. “He didn’t make it. I can see him lying on the ground in front of the gate’s access panel.”

Sullivan turned his attention back to the building. The fire had subsided. Six of Zednik’s men lay dead or dying, and the rest had taken cover back inside the house.

“All right,” he said. “Allen and Ives, you come with me. Wagner, keep up your fire on that doorway. Watch the windows, too.”

On Sullivan’s signal, the three men leapt over the barrier and scrambled around the side of the ship, firing blindly behind them as they went. They made it to the front of the ship and took cover underneath the overhanging nose of the cockpit. Sullivan scanned the area between him and the compound’s gate. None of Zednik’s men were present. He took a step toward the gate’s access panel but was sent scrambling back to the cover of the ship as three solid rounds hit the concrete in front of him. A fourth round chased him back into cover and grazed the top of his shoulder.

Sullivan brought his hand up to the wound and peeked out from under the ship. The second man in the guard tower was still in the fight. With the big gun destroyed, he was armed only with a handgun. That was fortunate. At this distance, his aim wasn’t likely to be accurate. Sullivan brought his energy rifle up, took three long strides out from under the cover and returned fire. Two shots hit the thick wall of the guard tower, gouging out chunks of concrete. The man briefly raised his head above the wall, but it was enough for Sullivan. A single shot found the man’s head and carved a smooth gouge across the top of his skull.

Sullivan took another few steps toward the access panel but checked his progress. Going to the panel would expose him to fire from the house.

“I need more cover!” he yelled back to Allen.

Allen and Ives went around to the side of the ship and laid down fire as Sullivan sprinted to the panel. He typed in the code that Hans had revealed to him. To his relief, it was the right code. The gate slowly parted in the middle, and the two halves swung inward. Outside, Sullivan could see one of Brain’s trucks in flames. The other had survived the firefight intact.

As the gate opened, Brain’s men streamed through it and into the compound. They ran past Sullivan and toward the building. After a minute of intense fighting, the sound of the gunfire subsided.

“They’ve all moved away from the doors and windows,” said Allen as Sullivan came up to stand beside him.

“All right,” said Sullivan to Ives, Allen and the other men around him. “With me.”

They moved up to the side of the building and hugged the wall. Sullivan went in first and cleared the entryway. As he went in, he kept his attention on the far end of the room where a hallway led to some more rooms. Once they knew it was clear, the others came in behind him. To the left of the hallway, a staircase led up to the second story.

“Ives, hold here. Allen, clear those rooms,” said Sullivan, indicating the hallway. “I’ll take the stairs.”

“Wait,” said Ives.

Sullivan turned to look behind him.

Ives shook his head. “Allen isn’t with us.”

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since we came into the building.”

Sullivan glanced at the faces around him. “All right. Ives, take that hallway. I’ll hold here until you give me the all-clear.”

Ives and two men took to the hallway. They cleared first one room, then a second. At the third, Sullivan heard gunfire. He turned his attention from the stairway and toward the hall. Ives and one man emerged from the room.

“He killed one of Brain’s men, but I got him.”

“Who? Zednik?”

“No. It was the man who killed Takemitsu. The assassin.”

“Younger,” said Sullivan. He was glad to know that that dangerous man was out of the equation.

“Hold here, Ives. I’m taking the second story.”

Sullivan and three of Brain’s men made their way up the stairs. He cleared first one room, then another. Three more rooms also showed themselves to be unoccupied. The compound was clear.

Sullivan sat down on the bed of the last room. There was a familiar scent. He took up the pillow from the bed and held it to his nose. Kate. She had been here.