Hunter Legacy 5 Hail the Hero (11 page)

“What?”

“The table is damaged. And there are
two largish figurines on the damaged end.”

“What are they of?”

“Identical to the ones on the console,
only bigger.”

My head swiveled around to see the figure
of Kali sitting on the console out of the way. I smiled.

“What really happened?” asked
Amanda.

“I told you. I was in the Ready Room.
There were two indistinct figures there with me, and while I watched the wall,
we had a conversation.”

“Who were they?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told
you.”

“I don’t believe a word of this
anyway,” said grumpy Commander.

Jedburgh gave him a sharp glance, and he
looked down at the floor.

“Was there anything strange about my
body while I was, err, away?”

“Actually there was,” said
Alison. “We couldn’t close your eyes. That shouldn’t have been so. Until
rigor sets in, the eyes are closeable.”

“I wonder,” I started.

“Wonder what?” said Miriam.

“I wonder if I wasn’t actually
dead.”

“You were dead Jon,” said Miriam.
“It wasn’t an illusion.”

The obvious emotion in her voice caused
both her bosses to look at her sharply. I guess they didn’t know we were an
item.

“I’m not saying it was an illusion,
I’m saying I wasn’t actually there.”

“That makes no sense at all,”
said Annabelle.

“It could,” said Eric. “But
only if you consider science fiction type answers.”

“Here we go,” said grumpy
Commander. I’d forgotten his name.

He received another sharp glance from his
boss.

“Commander, your dismissed!” said
Jedburgh.

He rose, saluted and quickly left.

“You were saying, ah?” he went
on.

“Eric Nielsen sir. Jon was brought up
spiritual. His ways and thinking are different from all of us. From what I
heard, he may be the first recorded case of actual time travel, as hard as that
might be to accept.” People looked at him strangely, so he went on
quickly. “The point is, strange things happen around him, and too him. Being
alive isn’t the only mystifying thing. He should’ve been vaporized. I did a lot
of research on the suits when I first heard about them. One Meson blast will
render a normal suit useless. Jon wears three boosters. So in theory, after
four Meson blasts, his suit would be useless. I asked about what hit him. They
were modified Meson Blasters, designed to stream laser instead of pulse. He was
hit with the equivalent of twenty four pulses.”

That got people’s attention. He went on.

“The combined power directed at him,
should’ve vaporized him. But it didn’t. Jon, what’s your suit integrity?”

I checked and told him. While I’d slept,
the suit had regenerated.

“That’s impossible,” said Alana.

I looked sheepish.

“What did you do?” asked Alison.

“I had a dream about golden streamers
and purple smoke.”

The twins startled and looked at each
other, indicating they’d shared that dream with me.

“What did you do?” demanded
Alison.

“I’m wearing three fully boosted
suits,” I said quietly.

Eric grinned while everyone else looked
poleaxed.

“Makes sense,” he said. “The
combination would be about the same integrity as combat suits offer. That
explains no vaporizing. But something else had to have been going on.”

I could see it in his eyes. He knew there
were holes in that explanation as much as I did, but neither of us wanted to
point them out. As much protection as I’d had, it still wasn’t enough for what
hit me.

“Science fiction?” asked Miriam.

“I can offer two theories, but no-one
here is going to buy them.”

“I will,” I said. I really wanted
to hear them too.

The room was still, and dead quiet.

“Well, the first is, at the moment of
your death, you were removed from the time stream. Whoever did it, allowed time
to go forward before putting you back. At the moment you were back, your
medical monitor revived you.”

“Doesn’t explain the dead body,”
said Jedburgh.

“True,” agreed Eric.
“However that can also be explained several ways. The best of which is a
droid with a suit was used to replace him. Explains not being able to close his
eyes. If it was a suit, the replication was fixed.”

I could see he knew there were big holes in
that theory as well, but again didn’t want to explain them.

“But I think something else happened.
He could have been removed from time altogether. His body was dead, but HE was
somewhere else. Fifteen minutes later, whoever took him, put him back, and as I
said, then his medical monitor revived him.”

I nodded to him, indicating they sounded
like good theories to me.

“I did experience what many call an
out-of-body experience,” I said. “Doesn’t explain a lot of things,
and we’ll probably never know exactly what happened. Whatever did happen, I’m
just glad to still be here.”

Alison and the twins came over and gently
hugged me.

Explanations over, I shooed everyone except
Lacey, Abagail, and Amy, off the Bridge. Everyone else was free to do whatever
they liked for the rest of the day. I promised the Admirals a private lunch in
my Dining Room.

I looked at Lacey.

“Fancy taking point, Wing
Commander?” I asked him.

“Sir?”

“We need someone to go through the
jumps ahead of us, and make sure the jump points are completely clear before we
go through.”

“Yes sir, I can do that. Do you want
me out front the whole way?”

“Whatever suits you. You need to be
there for ten this morning, five this afternoon, and midnight. You can dock for
the rest of the time if you want. I guess it depends on if you prefer solitude,
or a crowd.”

“I’m easy with both sir.”

“You can delegate if you want to, but
I thought a higher rank on the other side of each point would be a good idea in
case someone doesn’t want to give way.”

“I can see that. Undock a half hour
before, you think sir?”

“That should do it. We’ll have to slow
before going through, so you’ll have time to jump first. Have your AI
communicate direct with Jane as to the timing of jumps.”

“Will do sir.”

He saluted and left.

“What can we do for you sir?”
asked Abagail.

I turned to Amy first.

“Amy, can I hire you to do a task for
me? Complete and total secrecy?” She stared at me. “I’m serious. You
and Abagail have different skills needed to solve a problem I have, and which
Australian Security don’t seem to be able to crack.”

“What can I do to help you?” she
asked.

“Research, and following leads. I need
an experienced investigator, and you’re the closest I know.”

“Those skills are why I’m such a good
journalist.”

“I know, I looked you up.”

I hadn’t. I’d guessed.

“What’s the task?”

“Commitment first. I can hire you as a
contractor, or outright employ you. Actually come to think of it, having a
journalist on staff could be very useful. You could run a PR department for
me.”

I don’t think she would have been more
surprised if I’d levitated to the ceiling. Actually, with the grav chair I
could do that now. I chuckled to myself silently.

“Okay,” I went on, “how
about a contract until we arrive back in Nexus, after which time we can discuss
something more permanent. I’ll pay whatever your hourly rate is for time you
spend on this task.”

“Without knowing how long it’ll take?
You’re crazy!”

“Maybe so. Are you in or out?”

“In.”

“What’s the problem boss?” asked
Abagail.

I gave them the whole story about how
everywhere I went, there was an email setting up a hit on me, in several cases
when I’d only known hours before I was going to be there. I told them about the
emails which never arrived. The one from George that arrived two weeks after
being sent. And the one from Annabelle she didn’t send.

“A lot of the emails were undoubtedly
from the Santiago family, and their history now, so that’s a dead end. But
someone still wants me dead, and I’m fresh out of options. It’s possible this
last hit was just revenge from beyond the grave in case Santiago Senior failed,
or a group who never received the message the bounties would never be paid.
However, the only trail we have is the emails. And I want them followed to
wherever they lead.”

I looked them both in the eyes.

“General Harriman told me there were
other irregularities that had never been adequately explained, but so far, his
people have found nothing. That tells me whoever is behind this, is well
connected. So there are two ground rules. First, nothing is stored about this
matter, or emailed anywhere, which hasn’t been encrypted by Jane. She does an
encryption which only her clones can access. Second, do whatever it
takes.”

I looked straight at Abagail.

“Whatever it takes!” I restated
for her.

She nodded deliberately. We understood each
other.

“Amy, find an office you like, and get
a butler to put your name on the door. Abigail, you can use the computer room
office, or one up here. Whichever suits you. If you need anything from me, just
ask.”

They both nodded.

“Where do we start?” asked Amy.

“Get all the data we have from Jane. I
know Abigail has some of it, but Jane has all of what we’ve had shared with us
so far. I’ll email General Harriman for the rest of the data about the emails
he knows about. Discuss this with no one, and that includes everyone on this
ship. Complete secrecy. Make sure you’re not overheard if you’re discussing
anything to do with this.”

“Understood,” they said together.

“Time frame?” asked Abagail.

“As long as it takes. Fit the work in
around whatever else is going on. And don’t disappear for long enough that
people wonder what you’re doing. If anyone asks, Amy, you’re doing research for
your next article, and you better do that for cover anyway,” she nodded,
“and Abagail, you’re doing a computing task for me, which is too
complicated for anyone to understand, even if you tried to tell them.”

She laughed.

“I won’t even need to fake it. I can
double bluff anyone, except perhaps you, with computer stuff.”

“I’ll leave you to it then.”

Abagail hesitated as Amy left.

“By the way boss, I don’t know if you
noticed, but after you were shot on Avon, I took down your vid from the Guilds.
I figured with no bounty out on your head now, there was no message to send
anymore. Was that okay?”

“Good idea. I should’ve thought of it
myself.”

She smiled, and left.

I did a vid for Walter, asking him for all
the email data he had. I was going to investigate it myself, as yet another
email was behind the assassination attempt on me the day before. I gave him
Abagail’s contact details. I requested total secrecy, and for him to use Janet
to encrypt all emails from him, from now on. Jane encrypted the email, and I
sent it off.

I sat there for a few minutes, feeling
trapped in my chair, and doomed to being carried around for the next week or
two. The thought of being confined was upsetting.

I pulled up a hollo screen, and went
looking for medical aids for the immobilized. I surfed my way through a lot of
rubbish sites, until I found one for ‘Mobility World’. My grin let loose when I
saw their range of products. Where were they? Dallas and Kansas Orbitals were
both listed.

“Jane, bring up the small freighter
please, you’re going shopping. Or at least, send another avatar.”

“It has one already. What am I
buying?”

I told her.

“Bring the ship up, but don’t launch
for the moment.”

“Confirmed.”

I pinged Annabelle.

“How many combat suits did you
get?”

“Just replacements for the
team’s,” she pinged back. “That was their entire stock of top of the
range. As Jane’s and yours are in the best condition, I opted to replace the
team’s first.”

“No problem. Did you order any more?”

“No, I wasn’t sure I should.”

“Okay, I’ll put in an order now. Do
the team know you bought them?”

“No. They’re still in crates on the
Cargo Deck somewhere. You should have an invoice to pay somewhere in your
emails.”

“Don’t you think the team should open
their presents now?”

The ping back contained a laugh.

I found the invoice email and paid it.

I thought about ground assaults. I had a
professional team, and four hundred and forty eight combat droids. But the
droids were lightweights. If we ever came up against a larger team all in
combat suits, we were going to be in trouble, droids or not.

“Jane, take the freighter to Kansas
Orbital. Buy all the top of the line combat suits available on the station. Up
to fifty if they have them. If they’ll make the changes for your suit specs,
make up another eleven. Do those first, make up the fifty with normal suits
after. Get two Pulse Rifles for each suit, and if yours get made up, two Meson
Blasters for each. What you can’t get on Kansas, have them order for collection
on London Orbital. And see if you can get that combat suit backpack for BA,
which’ll allow her to fire Meson Blasters. If it can be done, get her two
Mesons as well. Make sure all suits have arm stunners.”

“Confirmed.”

BA was bad-arse at the best of times, but
with Mesons in each suit hand, she’d be seriously bad-arse. I wondered for a
moment if that was what BA actually stood for. I’d always thought it meant bad
attitude. But bad-arse fitted her better.

I pinged Amanda and asked.

“Duh!” came back.

I dragged my mind back to shopping.

“Do we have enough charge slots for
that number of combat suits?”

“Not on BigMother. But we do between
the armoury on Custer and the Marine Barracks armoury.”

“Buy the charge slots as well, or what’s
needed to build them. I think we’ll convert a storage bay on the Cargo Deck,
nearest one of the side airlocks, into a one hundred charge bay armoury. So buy
all the gun charge racks as well. We may as well have a decent central armoury near
to where ships can dock and move suits around easily. The one thing which
wasn’t practical about how Custer is docked, was moving combat suits around.
But she can dock nose in to a side airlock, and the suits then move on the same
level. Buy everything we need, and when the freighter returns, get the builder
droids onto it. Better make it ultra-secure, since Cargo Deck is open when we
dock.”

“Confirmed.”

A screen popped up showing the freighter
launching out the left side Flight Deck. It turned to match the way we were
heading, and streaked ahead of us.

“Have you been tweaking that freighter
again?”

“Indeed,” she said with a
chuckle.

“Start thinking about how to do a fast
courier ship. Avatar and pilot versions. There’s a need to move small things
around very fast, and it might be nice if our new shipyard had something to
make which people might want. I want one on hand anyway. It would be very
useful to have something Gig sized, which could break all the speed records. It
wouldn’t need guns if it could outrun missiles, but the usual fixed arrangement
on front would be nice as well. And it better have Point Defense anyway, in
case something happens when speed isn’t an option. There’s Talon hulls in
storage you can play with. Design me a new Courier ship. There’s a challenge
for you.”

“Confirmed.”

Squeals of delight came wafting up from
below.