America's Galactic Foreign Legion - Book 2: Reenlistment (17 page)

The GPS showed that Ralph Singh was being
moved north out of town along a dirt road that paralleled the
river. Drone images showed three small jeeps driving fast and
without lights. Also, a tip had been called in that Singh was being
moved north. We raced after them.

* * * * *

The Emperor of the North’s plan was to move
Ralph Singh out of town to G.E.’s space shuttle. The Legion had
been getting too close, and East Finisterra had been deemed unsafe.
The Emperor of the North rode in the second jeep. Singh sat
blindfolded next to him. G.E. rode in the rear jeep with his
Special Forces troops.

The mood was upbeat. Earlier in the day they
had picked up the five million dollars down payment from the Singh
Mining Corporation. The money was carried in G.E.’s vehicle. Just
after leaving town, G.E. ordered the driver to turn off the road
and into the woods.
I hope the Legion kills them all,
he
thought to himself.

The Legion helicopter gunship fired a burst
of five hundred 50 cal rounds into the lead jeep. The vehicle
disintegrated. Warning rounds were then fired over the second jeep.
On his night vision scope, the pilot could see several spiders and
one human captive exit the vehicle and run into the forest. Another
burst of 50 cal fire destroyed their jeep behind them.

The Emperor of the North dragged Singh deeper
into the cover of the forest. He could see headlights behind him
and hear the arrival of a Legion armored car crashing through the
underbrush. The armored car high-centered on some fallen trees.
Legionnaires poured out of the armored car and fanned out, forming
a protective perimeter. A machine gunner fired blindly into the
woods. Cannon fire followed. A lucky shot killed two
insurgents.

The Emperor of the North carried Singh as the
group of insurgents fled through the forest at about forty miles
per hour. The human pestilence had failed to account for how fast a
spider could move at sustained speeds. They easily put distance
between them and the Legion. But at every turn, the legionnaires
and the helicopter seemed to anticipate their moves. It was as if
the Legion knew which way to turn. Finally the Emperor of the North
stopped and confronted Singh. “How are they tracking us?” he asked.
“Tell me now, if you value your life.”

“How should I know?” asked Singh. “I can’t
tell anything blindfolded.”

The Emperor of the North drew his combat
knife and cut the blindfold off of Singh, drawing blood in the
process. He held the knife to Singh’s eye. “One last time for you
to tell me the truth,” said the Emperor of the North. “I will cut
out your eyeball if you don’t see things my way real quick.”

“There is a GPS tracking chip in my thigh,”
said Singh. “Please don’t hurt me.”

The Emperor of the North bit through Singh’s
thigh and extracted the tracking chip with his mouth and mandibles.
He gave the chip to another insurgent with instructions to lead the
legionnaires north, away from their group. The Emperor of the North
then led his fighters through the forest, back to a safe house in
East Finisterra.

Corporal Tonelli and his monitor dragon
followed the insurgents’ trail deep into the woods. I trailed them,
also checking my portable GPS device. The GPS indicated Singh was
headed back toward the river. But the dragon, after finding a small
amount of blood, insisted on tracking toward East Finisterra. I
followed Tonelli and his ‘dog’ Spot. I radioed to Sergeant Green
back at the armored car to track the GPS. They soon found the lone
insurgent carrying the GPS tracker and killed him. The rest of the
platoon followed the dragon to a small home on the edge of town. I
called in an air strike, destroying the building. But the
insurgents had already taken Singh down a spider hole and escaped
into the vast tunnel system under East Finisterra.

* * * * *

“We need to go into the tunnels if we are
going to root out the insurgents,” advised James Yamashita. “This
cat and mouse game you are playing is not working.”

“We can’t fight in the tunnels because we
lose our tactical advantage down there,” I replied. “Above ground
we have mobility, firepower, and air support. Below ground we have
nothing, not even numbers.”

“You have successfully fought the spiders in
the tunnels before,” argued Yamashita, his fists clinched. “You can
do it again.”

“No. We were not successful,” I insisted. “My
entire platoon was captured or killed.”

“You want to go down there so bad,” said
Lieutenant Lopez. “I’ll take you down with me. We’ll see how much
you like the idea then. Idiota.”

“What did you call me?” asked Yamashita.
“General Kalipetsis assured me I would get your full cooperation in
rescuing CEO Singh. Do I have to tell General Kalipetsis you are
not being helpful?”

“Look, you little pimple,” I said, grabbing
Yamashita by the throat and shoving him against the wall. “If I
report your death to General Kalipetsis, no one will even miss
you.”

“Please, we are all on the same side,” said
Yamashita. “I did not mean to offend or threaten either of you.
It’s just that I’m under a lot of stress. How about if we pump gas
into the tunnels?”

“Wouldn’t that stop the ongoing mining
operations?” I asked, letting go of Yamashita. “And I think there
are too many interconnected tunnels to do that effectively.”

“The Singh Mining Corporation owns most of
the mining tunnels anyway,” said Yamashita. “I can close down all
mining and seal egress points while you gas the tunnels. We don’t
even have to gas all the tunnels. If you can determine an
approximate location for CEO Singh, that will be good enough.”

“It might work,” agreed Lieutenant Lopez.
“Our scientists have recently developed some great new nerve agents
that work real well against the spiders.”

“Nerve agents?” asked Yamashita. “I was
thinking more along the lines of tear gas or some kind of knockout
or vomit gas. Remember, we do not want to risk killing CEO Singh.
Our goal is to rescue him.”

“My goal is to destroy the insurgency,” I
said. “The Legion does not negotiate with terrorists. I accept that
there will be some collateral damage. I like the idea of using
nerve agent in the tunnels.”

“CEO Singh is not to be considered collateral
damage,” said Yamashita. “He is the richest most powerful man on
New Colorado.”

“He may be the richest,” I said. “But you
have got a lot to learn about power.”

* * * * *

“Now, see here,” said the spider Mayor of
East Finisterra. “It is bad enough that all the miners are out of
work today. But now you are dumping chemicals into the mine shafts?
Think of the possible contamination to their workplace. I should
file an OSHA complaint against the Legion.”

“It’s nerve agent,” corrected Lieutenant
Lopez. “You should stand back because you really don’t want to get
any of this stuff on you.”

“That is exactly my point,” said the mayor.
“What are the residual effects of your nerve agent going to be on
my city?”

“There may be a few pockets of nerve agent
leftover here and there,” advised Lieutenant Lopez. “But most of it
will disperse harmlessly after a while.”

They watched as Legion engineers drilled a
small hole into the street and down to the first level of tunnels.
A compressor pumped nerve agent from tanks into the shaft. Then the
engineers sealed the hole and prepared to move on to the next
site.

“What if the nerve agent leaks out into the
city?” asked the mayor. “The tunnels surely are not airtight.”

“Nerve gas is heavier than air,” said
Lieutenant Lopez. “It should not rise up.”

“But what if it does?” asked the mayor. “What
about Murphy’s Law?”

“What would you know about Murphy’s Law?”
asked Lieutenant Lopez. “Only humans know about Murphy’s Law. I
guess it would be bad for the real estate market.”

“Now you make with the jokes?” asked the
mayor. “This is totally unacceptable.”

“Back off. You’re getting in the way,” said
Lieutenant Lopez, as he hopped aboard the drilling rig and drove
off with the engineers. This left the mayor with only Corporal
Tonelli to air grievances to.

“I also need to talk about the hostages you
recently took,” said the mayor. “Their families insist they have
nothing to do with the insurgency and demand release now.”

“They would say that,” said Tonelli. “But
attacks are way down now. You have any crackers to go with your
whine?”

“At least release the three football
players,” said the mayor. “After all, Guido, they are just
kids.”

“Wasn’t one of those kids the quarterback?”
asked Tonelli. “That’s really a tough break for the team.”

“The whole community is upset about our
quarterback getting arrested,” said the mayor. “There is talk that
the human pestilence is suffering from a case of sour grapes over
losing last week’s game.”

“I’m a soccer fan,” replied Tonelli. “But
what is the line on East Finisterra beating New Memphis this
weekend?”

“New Memphis is favored by seven and a half
points,” said the mayor, pulling out his notes. “That’s mostly
because our star players are being detained. Are you interested in
placing a bet?”

“Yes, but only through an intermediary,” said
Tonelli. “Put me down for $200,000 on East Finisterra High
School.”

“That’s quite a bet,” said the mayor, writing
down the information. “You know something I don’t know?”

“I’ll get your football players released
tomorrow,” promised Tonelli. “They better win.”

“Thank you, Guido,” said the mayor. “I think
I’ll be betting the same way.”

“Don’t be talking this up until we get our
bets in,” said Tonelli. “We have a chance to clean out those New
Memphis bookies big time. I might be calling in some more bets to
you later.”

* * * * *

“Where is our five million dollars?” asked
the Emperor of the North. “I want to see it.”

“It’s in a safe place,” said G.E.

“What safe place?” asked the Emperor of the
North.

“I invested it,” said G.E.

“In what?” asked the Emperor of the North.
“What gives you the right? The money belongs to all of us. It
belongs to the insurgency.”

“I am the Supreme Commander,” said G.E. “I
thought we had already established that. Or are you challenging
me?”

“We all want to know where the money is,”
said the Emperor of the North. “It is a reasonable request in light
of your disappearance for the last couple days. You had better
answer the question if you want to live past today.”

G.E. paced uneasily. His handful of Special
Forces soldiers were no match for the roomful of insurgents crowded
into the safe house. The sheer number of the insurgents gave them
instant respect and required an honest explanation about the money.
But would they appreciate his answer? Would his own Special Forces
troops accept his answer?

“I bet all five million dollars on East
Finisterra High School to beat New Memphis in this weekend’s
football game,” said G.E. “Let me explain. The game is a lock. It’s
in the bag.”

“Kill him!” yelled one of G.E.’s own Special
Forces soldiers.

“Wait!” said G.E. as they pressed forward. “I
got seven and a half points, and I arranged for our three detained
football players to be released by the Legion. Now that we have our
quarterback back, it’s a lock. We will double our five million
dollars. We can’t lose, and we are getting good odds.”

The Emperor of the North mulled that over. He
looked about to weigh the opinion of the others. They seemed to
like the wager.

“Can I get a piece of that action?” asked
Ralph Gobind Singh, still blindfolded and sitting in a corner.

“Shut up!” said the Emperor of the North.
“They had better win!”

* * * * *

“Corporal Tonelli, we need to talk to you in
private,” I said, as Lieutenant Lopez and I inspected Legion
positions on and about the Finisterra Bridge. “Come with us.”

“Yes, sir,” said Tonelli. “Did we kill any
insurgents today with that nerve gas?”

“No,” replied Lieutenant Lopez “But we
exterminated a lot of rodents and a few bums who didn’t get the
word to evacuate.”

“We will try again later,” I said. “When they
least expect it. So tell me, did you have three of the hostages
released?”

“Yes, sir,” said Tonelli. “I thought you
would not mind, being that all three were just juveniles.”

“Is that all there is to it?” I asked.

“Yes, sir,” said Tonelli. “Their parents
complained to the mayor, who complained to me. I thought that in
the interest of good public relations, we should release them.”

“If you lie one more time,” said Lieutenant
Lopez. “I will throw you and your dragon off this bridge.”

“But not before I shoot both you and your
lizard,” I added. “Spill it. What are you up to?”

Tonelli came clean. By now almost every
legionnaire in Finisterra had placed a bet. The point spread
increased to eight and a half, on rumors of more fighting and that
I might start executing hostages. Lieutenant Lopez and I decided to
bet the farm. We went all in. I had a Legion helicopter pick up the
Mayor of East Finisterra and fly him to New Memphis to make all the
necessary wagers in person with the New Memphis bookies. It was the
first time ever no one in East Finisterra shot at our helicopter.
Now that is progress, I thought.

The game was scheduled at New Memphis because
it had been deemed too dangerous to play in East Finisterra. The
New Memphis bookies were still confident and accepted all bets. I
put an armed guard on the three released players and the rest of
the East Finisterra football team. They also would be flown by
Legion helicopters to New Memphis for the game.

“They better win,” I told Guido.

Later in the evening I got a call from
General Kalipetsis. “I heard a rumor you are shooting hostages,” he
said.