RECCE II (The Union Series Book 5) (27 page)

‘Why?’

Aleksi sighed and looked upward, as if he was
thinking of a way to explain something complex using simple terms. ‘The
co-operation between us and Russia has allowed us to maintain a firm grip on
Eden, and also gave us the ability to re-take New Earth. In the face of Chinese
aggression, there’s no way we’ll risk upsetting them, not for the sake of
illegal trade between provinces.’

‘Or crimes against humanity . . .’

‘You and I both know we live in a cruel world,’ he
said, holding out his hands to encompass everything around us. ‘The sad truth
is that the Union doesn’t care about mistreated Boskers. What makes Helstrom
interesting is that he’s lining his pockets with cash he syphons from his trade
with Russia. Creating his own private piggy bank for the day he retires.’

‘He steals money from the Loyalists?’ I asked, my
eyebrows raised in surprise.

Aleksi smiled like a grown man would smile at an
ignorant child. ‘Oh yeah, he steals money! The war has made Helstrom a very
rich man. He has a huge workforce to make up for a lack of high-tech mining
equipment, and he doesn’t even have to pay them. He might talk the standard
Loyalist rhetoric about “cleansing the Bosque”, but his only drivers are money
and power. It doesn’t surprise me that he co-operated with anybody who wanted
to stop the deal between the Union and the Alliance.’

‘Do you know where he is now?’

‘He has a base about thirty kilometres from here, a
place called Camp Trondheim. It’s basically a concentration camp where Helstrom
keeps a large part of his non-European workforce.’

I said nothing, the cogs in my head slowly turning.

The Scandinavian studied me carefully. ‘You’re
thinking of attacking it, aren’t you?’

‘Our boss will be there,’ I replied in affirmation. ‘Maybe
even the missiles we were tasked to find.’

Aleksi waved a hand dismissively. ‘Those missiles
are irrelevant now, in the grand scheme of things. EJOC will want you to
prioritise regular Loyalist launch sites rather than Militia amateurs armed with
kit they found in an old warren. Even your brigade would agree with that order.’

‘I know.’

‘Besides,’ he went on, ‘the base is too large for a
single platoon to even contemplate attacking, and it’s just outside your ops
box. Technically, it’s ours to deal with anyway.’

‘Are you going to do anything with it?’

He smiled again, then shook his head. ‘Not yet.’

We both remained silent for a moment. My mind raced
to try to figure out a way that we could somehow turn our fate around. Even if
we couldn’t rescue our comrades, and even if the missiles were now irrelevant,
we could still have our vengeance.

‘So . . .’ Aleksi steered the subject away from
Helstrom. ‘Yulia fights against Bhasin, then she disappears, gets converted by
somebody in the FEA, then she comes back to Cellini to fight Bhasin again?’

‘I guess so,’ I said with a shrug. ‘Why?’

‘Look, you know this woman better than I do, and the
two of you clearly have some history together. I’m just going to say that if I
were you, I’d ask her a few more questions the next time I cosy up with her.’

I tried not to show my embarrassment at his
insinuation that I was in a relationship with Yulia. Not only was it
unprofessional, it certainly didn’t look good in terms of mission security.

Aleksi leant forward. ‘What was her mission, for
instance? She and her men - almost half a battalion of them - infiltrated into
the warren without anyone knowing, secured the missiles, and then very quickly
evaporated once things started going wrong. Why was she instructed to secure the
missiles, rather than simply destroying them?’

‘She probably wanted the FEA to find the missiles
and keep them,’ I said. ‘They didn’t pose a threat as long as they weren’t in
Helstrom’s hands.’

Seemingly satisfied with my answer, he leant back
again. ‘I see that. I also see that she might not have known initially that
this Bhasin character was conducting his own secret mission to find the
missiles, so she might not have known that the missiles were better off destroyed.
All the information we have at the moment is that she was met by an agent of
some form, banded together with others, armed, briefed, and then sent off to
complete a mission based solely on that briefing. That’s textbook agent handling.
It’s essentially what my team do here with the Boskers.

‘Apart from information collected from your platoon
on its previous operation around Dakar, there is nothing on our database
related to Yulia . . . we’ve already checked. That means she hasn’t been
touched by our counterparts in Edo, which means we can eliminate the
possibility of a Union influence. That leaves absolutely
everyone else
,
including this rogue inner circle. Let’s not forget that the FEA top brass are
all Guard, so something as substantial as Yulia’s secret operation would be
quite difficult to set up without one of them noticing.’

‘I seriously doubt she’s working for Bhasin,’ I said
testily.

‘Does she need to
know
that she is?’

I fell silent.

Aleksi held up a finger. ‘You’ve got to ask yourself
one question, Andy. Who benefited most from Yulia attacking the warren and
securing those missiles? You guys? Or Bhasin?’

12

Enforced Rest

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Aleksi and his team were planning to leave Copehill
within an hour, taking Butcher along with them. He didn’t seem willing to
discuss their means of casualty extraction, simply telling me that they could
have him back in Paraiso within a few hours and that he would receive high
quality care throughout his journey. I chose not to press him on the matter,
since their method was obviously sensitive.

I spent the remaining time quizzing him on his
knowledge of our ops box and the security set-up of Copehill. The Scandinavian seemed
happy to share with me everything he knew on the area, and even called Marcus
over to add his own perspective. Yulia had disappeared, I noticed, presumably to
catch up with other old acquaintances within the laboratory. I made a mental
note to find out more information the next time I saw her, but for now I was
far more interested in what Aleksi and Marcus had to say.

To my disappointment, the strip of land we had been
assigned to was particularly uninteresting from a military point of view. There
were no juicy targets to pick out, nothing that hadn’t already been hit by
Union bombs. Aleksi’s team had already set up a comprehensive target list
before the campaign had even begun, and many of those targets were now either destroyed
or queued up to be destroyed by our warships within the coming hours. There was
a large Loyalist warren on the north-western fringe of our ops box, although
that was already being observed by Boskers who were reporting directly to
Aleksi.

‘To be honest,’ Aleksi summarised, ‘all that’s left
for you to do is search for anything we’ve missed. I have no doubt there must
be some launchers left over, ones that haven’t been drawn into the centre of
the province.’

‘Looks like you’ve done a good job,’ I said.

Aleksi offered a small bow. ‘Thank you. We couldn’t
achieve any of this without the Boskers, though. There are only four people in
my team, and twelve of us in our regional group, but we work with an entire army
of Boskers.’

‘How many are there?’

‘Working for us?’ The Scandinavian puffed his
cheeks. ‘Marcus, do you care to guess?’

Even Marcus, a Bosker himself, seemed unable to give
an accurate figure. ‘A thousand, maybe . . .’

‘We’re not dealing with conventional military units,’
Aleksi explained. ‘It’s not an exact science.’

I looked down at my datapad map. ‘You haven’t left
us much to do.’

‘No,’ the Scandinavian admitted. ‘No offense, but
you’ve probably been given this area to keep you out of harm’s way, and to give
us freedom to move further north. It’s pretty dead here now, when you consider
the bigger picture. All low priority targets. When the ground campaign starts,
our dropships would never come down here, it’s too close to Edo and too far
from Europa’s capitol. The Loyalists know this, and so they have drawn their
forces away. Whatever remains is intended purely to maintain their border
against possible retaliation from the south. Given the political instability
and the relative impotence of Edo’s military, however, I don’t think that’s a
likely scenario.’

It wasn’t what I wanted to hear. All I wanted to do
was attack, even if my method was simply identifying targets and calling in
fire from the heavens. I just wanted to hurt the Militia, but it seemed that
most of the real damage had already been done. We were simply being used to
inspect the wreckage Aleksi’s team had left behind. It felt as though somebody
had tied our hands behind our backs.

Sensing my frustration, Aleksi stood up and moved
around to look at my datapad. He traced a few areas on my map with his finger.
‘If I were you, I would focus my attention along the roads close to the border.
The Loyalists know that we’re looking for their anti-orbital missiles, so whatever
remains here will be kept moving.’

I sighed gloomily. ‘Not much to give my sergeant
major . . .’

‘Sorry, I wish I could be more help.’ He then
steered the conversation in a different direction, asking, ‘Do you need to go
back straight away?’

‘No. We’re going to lie up for a while, then move
off again tonight.’

‘Stay here, then. . .’ Aleksi insisted. He flicked
his head upward. ‘Get your men down from their position outside the crater and
make use of this place.’

I gave him a doubtful grimace. ‘I’m not sure. I was
planning to move out and find somewhere in the forest.’

Aleksi smiled, then rolled his eyes in mock
irritation. ‘Trust me, Andy, for goodness sake! You’re safer here than in your
own harbour. Marcus will more than happily provide you with access to his
security network if that makes you feel better, won’t you, Marcus?’

The councillor nodded. ‘Absolutely. All I would ask
is that you stay here and not wander around the laboratory. You have no enemies
here, but there are many of us who do not want to be involved at all in this
war. They may be frightened by your presence.’

I glanced between the two of them. There was no
doubt in my mind that Aleksi was genuine, and therefore I needed to take his advice
seriously. My men were exhausted, after all, and Copehill offered an excellent
opportunity to recover somewhere out of the elements.

‘OK,’ I relented. ‘I’ll call them in.’

My section enjoyed a few minutes of elation as they
greeted Butcher at the airlock, suddenly animated as they threw insults at the
inured trooper in true dropship infantry fashion. Rather than being shown
sympathy for his injuries, he was instead mocked for “getting his head down”
and told to “stop being weak!” Some people might have been deeply offended, but
Butch took the banter as it was intended. It was clear that everyone was
thrilled to see one of our missing troopers in one piece.

I stood back from the commotion, instead noting that
Aleksi was pulling on his facemask, preparing to go.

‘We’re going to take Butch away now,’ he announced.
‘He’s in good hands. I’ll get our warships to relay a confirmatory message once
he reaches Paraiso.’

‘Thanks, Aleksi.’

Aleksi shook my hand with a firm grip. ‘Remember,
you can trust Marcus. Make sure you get some rest, Andy, and good luck. Who
knows, perhaps our paths will cross again . . .’ He shot me a mischievous wink.

With that, the Scandinavian strode over to Butch and
gave him a gentle tap on the shoulder. The injured trooper nodded, then pulled
on his own respirator.

‘Well, boys . . .’ Butch said with a grin, ‘that’s
me out of here!’

Wildgoose laughed. ‘Oh yeah, that’s it. Off again
already! No wonder your old platoon sent you to us!’

Butch let out a fake laugh. ‘Nice one.’

I shook the injured trooper’s his hand. ‘Take it
easy, mate,’ I said with feeling; at least we knew that one of us would make it
out alive.

‘You too,’ Butch replied. ‘Make them pay, mate.’

I paused for a moment. ‘We’ll try.’

His eyes took on a sudden intensity. ‘Don’t try.
Do
it
.’

Aleksi ushered Butch toward the airlock, followed by
Marcus. The councillor turned to me just before he closed the inner airlock
door, gesturing back into the storeroom.

‘Make yourselves comfortable,’ he said. ‘I’ll be
back soon.’

With that he closed the inner door, leaving me my
section bunched up around the airlock, suddenly alone in our new shelter. There
was a stunned silence amongst my men as their brief meeting with Butch, Aleksi
and Marcus came to an abrupt end.

‘Nice in here, isn’t it?’ Wildgoose said finally.

I looked around the storeroom again. To us, having
spent most of the past twenty-four hours either exposed to the elements, wading
through water, or fighting through smoke-filled warrens, it was like a palace.
I suddenly became aware of the warmth of the room slowly seeping into my aching
muscles and joints. Even if our visit to Copehill didn’t provide us with the
intelligence goldmine we were looking for, at least it would give us the chance
to properly recuperate.

‘Let’s have a proper look around,’ I told everyone.
‘Don’t start ripping the place up or knocking down doors. These people are
friendly and I don’t want to annoy them. All I want is an idea of the building
layout, and somewhere for us all to sleep.’

Sleep was the magic word, and the prospect of a
comfortable stay indoors was enough to send my section scattering.

As the section dispersed, Puppy remained behind.
‘Any joy on the intelligence side of life?’

I looked at my 2ic and sighed. ‘I guess that depends
on your definition of joy. It’s no wonder we’ve been able to cross the border
so easily. This place is dead.’

Puppy looked surprised. ‘They gave you no
intelligence at all?’

‘They gave us loads of it, but nothing we can really
work with. We’ll end up conducting recces onto border defence positions that
nobody’s really interested in.’

‘Right. Well, at least we can get some rest now,
then.’

‘Yeah,’ I said glumly.

Our inspection of the building layout was relatively
quick. All of the rooms were nondescript, and the storage items were nothing
more than pieces of high and low-tech farm equipment that were of little
interest to us. The room that we had found Butch in was clearly not intended as
accommodation, as his bed was merely a rapid assemble cot bed with a mattress
thrown on top.

What did excite my men, though, was the discovery of
a purpose-built washroom, complete with its own shower, sink and toilet. Cheers
erupted as they realised that the shower actually worked and produced hot water
on demand.

Ignoring the childish whoops from within the
washroom, presumably as someone was pushed under the water, Puppy and I
discussed how we would occupy our new shelter. I decided to spread everyone
into multiple rooms to mitigate against the risk of an insider attack, with a
sentry posted within the main storeroom to watch the airlock. The airlock was
the only way in and out, so as long as we kept that covered then we were
relatively safe. In addition, that sentry would be connected to Marcus’
security network, once he returned to set it up for us. If for some reason he
didn’t return, then we would be forced to find him or leave. With or without
Aleksi’s assurance I wasn’t going to stay in the crater without a view into the
outside world.

‘Do you want the room with the bed?’ Puppy offered.
‘You must be fucked.’

I dismissed the offer with a wave of my hand. ‘No,
I’m alright. I need to compile all this intelligence ready for the sergeant major.’

‘You need to
sleep
, Andy,’ Puppy insisted.
‘God knows what you’re running on right now. I’m tired and I’ve had several
hours more than you have.’

‘I’ll wait until Marcus returns.’

‘Andy, I’ll deal with Marcus, and I’ll let you know
if he doesn’t return. Go to sleep. Honestly, I’ve got this. I’m your 2ic,
remember?’

I thought of arguing again, then realised it was
futile. Section commander or not, it didn’t matter. Puppy wasn’t going to back
down because he and I both knew he was right.

‘Fine,’ I said, ‘but I want a wake-up call in six
hours.’

‘Six hours?’ Puppy blurted in mock dismay. ‘I was
offering you some sleep, not the week off!’

I bristled visibly.

Puppy laughed. ‘I’m joking, mate! Go to sleep,
you’re making me tired just looking at you. Why not take the room over there?’
He pointed to an open door nearby.

‘OK,’ I surrendered. ‘I’m going.’

‘Good. Go.’

After having shut myself within the tiny room which
was to be my accommodation for the remainder of the day, I wasted as much time
as possible performing minor administrative tasks. I double-checked all my
batteries, checked the serviceability of all my equipment, before finally
inspecting the contents of my daysack just to make sure nothing had fallen out
of place.

Eventually I stopped, realising what I was doing. I
wasn’t just unwilling to go to sleep, I was frightened of it. I was afraid of what
would happen when my mind began to wander, afraid of the faces that would
return to haunt me the moment I shut my eyes.