Authors: Barlow,M
“What do Aussies want with my town?”
Alex examined him. Nezomba was a hardened soldier—not afraid of much, just as Alex thought he would be. He continued to circle the Alex and his team, his steps wide and bouncy.
“We’re after the Mendium,” Alex said, his voice calm.
He wasn’t sure why Nezomba didn’t attack, but it didn’t matter. He wouldn’t leave this town without the Mendium.
Nezomba stopped in front of Alex. “You are mistaken, agent. Who told you we have Mendium?” Nezomba didn’t wait for an answer. He turned around and walked toward his jeep.
Alex followed him with his eyes, without moving a muscle. “We’ve paid the government.”
Nezomba waved his hand to dismiss them. “You should go back to Australia. You don’t belong here.”
“We’re not going anywhere.”
The man continued walking toward the jeeps with his back to Alex and his team. They reached for their weapons, but Alex motioned his team to halt.
“I’ll have the foreman deliver a few kilos in one hour. A sign of good faith,” Nezomba said and chuckled. “I want thirty percent of what you paid the government. Fifty percent if you break one more jaw.”
Nezomba laughed and jumped into his jeep that drove away. Alex shook his head. Amused, he walked back to the airship.
“What a character!”
He was relieved he didn't have to use power to get the Mendium. In a country with civil war, deciding who was right and who was wrong was difficult. This was a win. Noah would approve the money, and he had time to finish the book.
“All right, let’s see if Chris can make coffee.”
*****
December 26, 2030
Heading west, the small, black airship flew over the Wester Australian desert after midnight. Between the silent engine and the dark night, the ship was a ghost. Unseen. Unheard.
Inside, Violet leaned forward on the cold metal table to rotate a 3D map, displayed on the large hologram, of the army base in Western Australia. She moved her eyes between the four members of her team covered in slim black armor until she settled on Daniel.
“Dan, what’s your window?” Violet asked.
“Five minutes. Relax, it’s not my first mission.”
“You know the chances of us making it back are slimmer than my waist, don’t you?”
Dan winked. “Well, you had the tiramisu after dinner.”
Violet glowered at him. “I’m tempted to leave you there. Gabriel Wu will skin you alive and mount your head on a stick.”
Dan sighed. “Remember before, when I said relax?”
“I can’t, we need to review the Royal Ship’s schematics, the guards’ schedules, and the alien wing’s designs to make sure we didn’t miss anything.”
“You mean like we were doing for the last twenty-four hours?”
Violet took a deep breath to calm her nerves. This wasn’t her first mission either, but she felt like it was. She never took anything for granted, because she knew the second she got complacent, it would be her end.
She studied everything relentlessly before her missions for as many times as needed. No room for error with such a high profile team.
“Fifty kilometer mark, aka our last chance to turn around if you’re getting the willies,” the pilot said.
Violet put on her helmet and pressed a button next to her ear to activate her night vision. She pressed a button on a small device on her belt to activate her cloak. Her team’s smiles vanished as did their bodies when they, too, activated their cloaks.
“This part creeps me out,” the pilot said.
Violet smiled. “You should find another unit. Someone out there who hasn’t heard about the internet will find your jokes amusing.”
“Good thing you had that cake, or you’d be cranky.” The pilot laughed amused by his own joke. “Twenty kilometers mark.”
Violet ignored his jab. “Ghost mode, please.”
“You got it,” the pilot said and applied the ghost camouflage.
The airship slowed down until it landed a kilometer away from the base.
Violet switched on her compact Jetpack, jumped through the open side door, and glided forward toward the army base. Her team followed her until they reached the gate.
She slipped past the gate and followed the wall until she reached the entry point.
Violet stopped and listened. Footsteps. Two guards marched toward her location. She waited for them to turn around and walk away before she jet packed over the wall.
The base was dark except for a few scattered lights and a handful of patrols, roaming the space between the buildings.
“Split,” Violet whispered, and watched her team race to their destinations.
Once they’re gone, she glided to the aliens’ wing. It was clear sailing except for two more guards. She went around them.
They didn’t guard the wing. Chances were slim someone would be stupid enough to break into a building that housed the four most powerful beings on Earth. If she was in charge though, she’d put guards outside the wing.
The door had a retina scanner and a fingerprint reader. Violet pressed a button on her wrist piece. A short chirp, then a small hologram of a green eye popped above her index which she pushed across the scanner. Green light. The scanner accepted the entry.
From a black, leather pouch on her waist, Violet picked up a plastic film, put it on her thumb, and stuck it on the fingerprint reader. Another green light blinked. Then a click, and the door unlocked. She pushed it, got inside, and closed it behind her.
The Queen’s room was on the left, but the door was closed. Violet waited next to the door until the Queen’s daughter came to see her. She followed the daughter inside and hugged the wall meters away from the two of them.
A few minutes later, the daughter left and Violet approached the Queen who sat down in a chair next to the only window in the room. The Queen didn’t have her wrist piece or belt on her. Violet searched the room and saw that they were on the bedside table on the other side of the bed. A meter away from the Queen.
Sweat formed on her forehead. Violet couldn’t remove her helmet, and it was a matter of seconds before sweat rendered her blind. As if that wasn’t bad enough, her heart beat fast and loud as if it was trying to alert everyone to her presence. With her back against the wall, Violet took a deep breath and exhaled. She took another and exhaled to force her mind to relax and her heartbeat to slow down. The sweat dried up.
On her hands and knees, Violet crawled around the bed. She squeezed in between the bed and the Queen. Her elbow almost touched the Queen’s armor. Violet could hear the soft, muffled rustling of the Queen’s silky straps against her metal armor. She held her breath. When she reached the bedside table, Violet stuck her wrist next to the Queen’s piece and sat still between the bed and the Queen.
The Queen turned around and looked toward her.
Could she see her? Violet’s eyelids became heavy, and her palms sweat. She was on the verge of blacking out. The Queen spun around and stared out the window again.
The micro-computer on Violet’s wrist paired with the Queen’s wrist piece and transferred everything. Even with its cutting-edge technology, it took her computer five whole minutes to complete the transfer. Five minutes of controlled, slow breathing. Of fear the Queen would lunge at her any second.
When her computer transferred the data, Violet pulled away and crawled to the far side of the bed near the door. She was trained to control her breathing and vitals. The whole time she didn’t move a muscle or make the slightest sound. She had to wait fifteen minutes until the Queen left the room.
Violet jumped out of the window. She leaned against the wall and took a deep breath before she made her way to the airship. She jumped inside, deactivated the cloak, and removed her helmet.
“You look like hell,” the pilot said.
Violet smiled. She was both exhausted and relieved. “They don’t sleep.”
The rest of her team were inside, sitting down on the metal chairs except for Dan who lay flat on his back. She sat down on the floor next to him.
“Should’ve prepared more,” Dan said and closed his eyes.
Violet patted his shoulder. “We’ve done it. Get some rest.” She had to deliver the software.
An hour later, Violet drove her small car into a remote warehouse in the northern outskirts of Sydney.
She arrived, got out of the car, walked into the building, and took the elevator to the third floor—a large operations' area full of analysts. One of them waited for her next to the elevator.
She handed him the memory stick.
“Good work,” the analyst said.
“Ta,” Violet said.
He walked up to the analysts and hand the memory stick to one of them. “Tear it apart.”
Her mission was complete. With nothing on her agenda, she could spend next weekend with her mom, like she’d been trying to do for months. But first, paperwork. Violet walked into the elevator when she saw a man inside the elevator, smiling at her. She forgot about the free weekend.
“I need you to do one more thing for me.”
*****
Commander Gabriel Wu stormed into the reconditioning room. “The Minister approved it.”
Mara was with her mother, overseeing the team who’d taken over the enhancement process. Gabriel had been barging into this hall twice a day, sometimes more, sometimes for no reason at all. This time, Mara was grateful. Her mother looked tired and could use a break. On Korr, Mara got tired before the Queen did. Maybe she was getting old.
“Approved what?” Mara asked.
He smiled. “Funding for the expansion. As soon as you give me the designs, I’ll have fifty chairs made.”
The Queen stopped what she was doing and turned to Gabriel. “I thought you got it last night?”
“Queen Carilia, I am not sure what you mean, but I didn’t get any designs.”
The Queen covered her mouth with her hand and her eyes dimmed. “Well, someone did.”
Before he said anything, one of his officers rushed into the hall. No, by all means, it wasn’t like two types of training were taking place, Mara thought.
“General, you need to see this,” the officer said, a tablet in his hand.
“What is it? I’m in the middle of something.”
The officer handed him a tablet without uttering a word.
Gabriel had a scowl the size of a small hill on his forehead. He waved the tablet. “We have an energy map, an intelligence report, and a surveillance photo of an infiltration team.”
“I felt a young woman in my chamber,” the Queen said. “I thought she was one of yours.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed. “Can you describe her?”
“No, she cloaked herself. I couldn’t see her, even though she was meters away. She was small, but nimble.” The Queen looked at Mara. “She was a lot like you.”
The commander’s nostrils flared, and the blood in his body rushed to his face. “Their energy signature doesn’t belong to any unit in my division, and it’s different from yours.”
He looked like he was about to breathe fire.
Mara had never seen him this upset. “Calm down.”
“A cloaked extraction team was in my command, and I don’t know who they are, or what they stole. How can I calm down?”
“Were you able to track them?” Mara asked.
“The trail vanished a kilometer away from the base,” the officer said. “They must’ve had an airship, waiting for them.”
Mara’s eyes glowed. “I can track the ship.”
The Queen shook her head. “You need to train these men.”
Mara looked at her mother, but the tired, yet stern look in her eyes told Mara the Queen had decided and was too tired to argue.
“Fine, I’ll give you something to track the ship.”
“That’ll help,” Gabriel said and swung around to speak to his officer. “Put together a team of enhanced soldiers.”
“Look at you maturing,” the Queen said, smiling. “I remember a time when you would’ve left whatever you were doing to fight.”
Mara didn’t comment, but her mother was right.
This planet was changing her. The longer she stayed on Earth, the more she became like humans. The last time she was here, it shaped her life in ways she couldn’t comprehend.
“I hope I’m not overstepping my boundaries,” the Queen said, “but you’re acting hastily. If the team you’re after is as good as the young lady in my quarters, they’re an elite team. You need to be cautious.”
Gabriel considered her words. “An enhanced intelligence agent took a thirty-man extraction team in a matter of minutes in Canberra.”
“I know how strong your soldiers are,” the Queen said, “but that team won’t go toe-to-toe with your men. I had teams like them in my forces, and we trained them to never fight face-to-face and never on their enemy’s terms.”
“They are getting away as we speak. You’re needed here on base. What choice do I have? I can’t sit here and do nothing.” Gabriel exited the building.
“He’s out for blood,” the Queen said.
“I’ll make sure the soldiers know what they’re up against,” Mara said before she followed him outside.
“A small team infiltrated our camp last night,” Gabriel said, facing the enhanced team. “Three to five people, led by a young female. An elite extraction team, cloaked, efficient. We think they are still in Australia. I want you to hunt them down and bring them to me.”
“Yes, sir.”
Mara walked to the infiltration team until she stood in front of the team leader. “What’s your name?”
“Malcolm, Ma’am.”
“Malcolm, this device will help you track the ship. Take it to their last known location.” Mara handed him a small device. “They’re quick, mobile, and resourceful. If you find anything in your mission too easy, get out. It’ll be a trap.”
*****
Another half hour later, Malcolm and his band of enhanced soldiers landed where the infiltration team’s trail ended. The small device Mara gave him picked up the ship’s exhaust signature, and a circle on the screen blinked for a few seconds before an arrow pointed east.
“We’re going east,” Malcolm said and motioned his men to return to the airship.
They took off and followed the arrow for an hour. It led them to the outskirts of Sydney near Middle Harbor before the unique signature dissipated.
He’d expected a more precise location, but an estimate was better than searching the entire country. And they had Sarah—a powerful telepath who could scan the area beneath the ship to find the team.
“The ship is here somewhere. The pilot must be, too,” Malcolm said.
Sarah nodded. “Get me closer to the ground.”
Malcolm motioned to Charlie, their pilot, who lowered the airship and circled the suburbs. Sarah leaned forward to bury her head in between her hands. She squeezed her temples and covered her ears to isolate herself from everything around her.