The Enclave (The Verge) Read online

  More distance shooting and another explosion echoed through the corridors and then everything fell silent.

  Then a voice called from the rooms beyond.

  “Hey Josh, it’s me. Don’t shoot.”

  John got up from behind the table and joined the two men at the door.

  “Kath!”

  “John.”

  Katherine appeared at the far door similarly armed as Joshua Val Myra. Her dress uniform was spattered with blood and rents along her left shoulder showed how close she had missed being a casualty herself. She slung the rifle over her shoulder and swung the pistol slowly about the room.

  “I think they’re dead Kath.”

  “Can never be too careful Josh. It’s what’s kept me alive so far.”

  “It’s just that I’ve noticed when you shoot someone they generally don’t get back up.”

  “But you’ve shot some of these and I have seen your targets get back up and try and kill me.”

  “Touché,” Joshua said jovially.

  “We’ve shot some of them as well,” Scott called out.

  “Even more reason for me to be careful.” But Katherine came towards them, stepping around the bodies strewn about the floor, her pistol held ready in case any of them twitched.

  “How can you all sound so callous?”

  John turned back to see Andrea staring wide eyed at them. She had bundled her jacket under Liam’s head and was now trying to loosen the armor around his chest to make him more comfortable.

  “Please excuse me Your Excellency.” Scott Applegarth smiled at the grey haired woman, his blonde hair shining like the halo of a blessed saint. Then his smile disappeared. “It’s just a way of coping; we’ll let the shock sink in when this is all over.”

  Andrea shook her head and went back to loosing Liam’s chest armor.

  Katherine slipped through the door and sank against the floor next to Joshua Val Myra, rolling her head back on the wall with her eyes closed.

  “We should be fine now,” she finally said. “Steve Tran and his two squads are here and are helping what’s left of local security to clear out the building of undesirables.” She then opened her eyes and smiled. “The Lieutenant took my personal flyer to get here but I’ll forgive him that – as long as it’s not scratched!”

  “What do we do now?” John asked.

  Katherine shifted slightly to look at him.

  “We wait.”

  Chapter

  Eleven

  ‘Kath, Katherine. Answer me!’

  The comm link crackled to life and Katherine keyed it to answer. “Tom? Where are you?”

  ‘I’m with Steve; we’re on our way up to the fourth floor now. Are you okay?'

  Katherine felt Joshua’s eyes on her as Tom finished speaking. She ignored him. “I’m fine Tom.” She sighed and adjusted her sore shoulder. She had not been fast enough to duck an incendiary round and she could still feel the heat of it passage across her skin. “The Governor General and the Ambassador are here with me. We need to get them somewhere safe.”

  The comm beeped again but this time it was Steve Tran. ‘Skipper, we’ve found an entry point in the basement. Beta squad is keeping an eye on it. The rest of us are coming to get the GG and the Ambassador out.’

  “Remember to announce yourselves when you get here Lieutenant. I don’t want to down my Tac Officer by mistake.”

  ‘Aye aye Skipper.’

  “Guys with guns, did you hear that? My people will be arriving shortly. Don’t shoot them,” she said not even turning to look at the three men by the door. She heard John ram home a magazine pilfered from the dead by the door into a pistol.

  “I’ll try not to,” Joshua muttered. Scott just grinned.

  Joshua grunted as Katherine gave him a lazy push on the shoulder. “Play nicely with the Feds Val Myra.”

  “Yes Ma’am,” he said tiling his head back to lightly touch hers.

  “I meant play nicely with the new Feds Josh.”

  “Yes Ma’am.” He still kept his head touching hers while he passed her back some fresh ammo clips.

  “John, you okay?” she asked tucking magazines into her pockets.

  “I’m fine. Liam was injured when the door blew.”

  Katherine pushed Joshua’s head away and leaned passed the shot up table to look at Liam’s prone form. “How is he Andrea?”

  The Governor General did not turn from her work. “He’s unconscious but his breathing is even and I’ve stemmed the bleeding on his shoulder wound.

  “Skipper, Alpha Team is coming through,” a voice came from the outer rooms.

  “Come on in Alpha,” Katherine sang out.

  Steve Tran appeared in the far doorway and the rest of his people quickly followed him. Katherine’s eyes skimmed over them and relaxed when they came to rest on Tom Shepherd.

  Steve and Tom entered the room and dropped down beside her while the rest of Alpha Team spread themselves in defensive positions around the outside office.

  “Nice party you invited us to Skipper.” Steve said in way of greeting.

  “I’m glad you could make it Lieutenant. But in my Flyer?”

  “It’s the fastest planetary transport the Adelaide has. And we wanted to get here before the party was finished.”

  “Never mind. Any damage to the flyer will be docked from your pay.” Katherine smiled as she spoke to take the sting from her words. “What have you got to report?”

  “Beta Squad think they have found the point of entry for the second incursion in the basement levels.”

  “Have they?”

  “They have secured the site and are waiting for us to join them.”

  “And the rest of the building?”

  “It has been given the all clear. Local security cleared out the last lot as we were coming up. It looks to me like this level got the brunt of it.”

  Katherine’s eyes flicked to her brother and she saw in his eyes that he knew how narrow his escape was.

  “Did one of you think to bring me up some decent armor?”

  Tom slid the backpack from his shoulder and let it thump to the floor. “It’s lucky Steve took your flyer otherwise you wouldn’t have this.”

  Hands flying to the zip of the backpack; Katherine had it open in an eye blink and was quickly pulling out the light armor inside.

  “The NHSIO squad will be with us soon to escort the ‘dignitaries’ to a safe area.” Steve looked at John and Andrea has he spoke and then his eyes flicked to Scott.

  “I better not be included with those ‘dignitaries’,” Joshua said as he began to remove parts of body armor from the dead around the doorway.

  “You need to come with us Val Myra-” John began but Joshua cut him off.

  “I don’t need to do anything. Except to hunt down these people for having the gall to try and kill me.”

  “What if you’re killed?”

  “Then my sister or my injured mother will take my place. I also have two brothers who could step in if I knew where they were.” The two was emphasized and Katherine saw a nerve by John’s eye start to twitch.

  “Armor up quickly Josh. Once the NHSIO get here, we move out.”

  “Yes Ma’am.”

  Joshua began stripping the dead in earnest with Scott helping him. Katherine removed her damaged uniform jacket and began locking home pieces of her body armor. It was made of a light, flexible polymer that can disperse impact energy in an eye blink and it would need an extremely high velocity weapon to have a projectile tear through it. Now, if this were powered armor then the kinetic shielding would prevent energy impact damage and slow down projectiles. But this isn’t, which means I’ll have to rely on my reflexes to pull me through.”

  Tom helped Katherine click tight the clips on her back armor, “You aren’t seriously thinking of letting the diplomat come with us?”

  “He’s ex-Alliance Infantry. And he’s good. Surprisingly good.”

  “There, you’re secure.” Tom muttered
as he glanced over to where Scott was helping Joshua clip into his scavenged armor.

  “If he wants to come he can.”

  “But what if he makes a mistake that gets the rest of us killed?”

  “He helped to keep me alive on our way up here Tom. And, as I said, he’s Alliance trained. He knows how they operate.” Katherine shoved her jacket into her now emptied bag.

  Tom looked again at the Val Myran but said nothing.

  “John, when the NHSIO arrive, can you make sure that my bag gets carried out with you?”

  “Yes of course.” John leaned forward and grabbed the straps and pulled the bag over to him.

  Steven’s comm beeped and he thumbed it on. “Lieutenant, the NHSIO are coming up.”

  “Thanks Dave. Skipper did you hear that?” Steve thumbed his comm off and rose to his feet as Katherine nodded.

  “Okay people,” Katherine called out as she rose to her feet. “Get ready to move. As soon as the NHSIO arrive, we’re out of here.”

  Yes Skipper or Ma’ams were repeated to her followed by the sound of weapons being slung or readied for action.

  “Lieutenant Tran, this is Agent Marsh. We’re coming through.”

  “Okay people, I want you all ready to move. John, update Agent Marsh on what has happened and then tell him to hurry your arses out of here.” Scott hurried back into the conference room and positioned himself near his charge who was still tending to the comatose Liam.

  John nodded and Katherine hurried out with Tom and Steven to join Joshua and the rest of Alpha Squad in the office.

  A quick nod to the incoming NHSIO Team and then they were out of the Ambassador’s offices and heading back downstairs. Katherine let Steven take the lead, as he knew where he was going. She recognized parts of hallways and hot points that she and Joshua had passed on the way up, but then the group moved into unfamiliar territory.

  Instead of heading for the utility stairs where she and Joshua had come up, Steve took them down by the grandiose central staircase. It was large and expansive and glittered with marble and gold. And it now had the added decoration of numerous dead bodies. Most looked to be security staff taken unawares by the group who attacked the fourth floor, but there were at least two attackers lying amongst the dead to show that they did not gain access cleanly.

  And then they were crossing the central foyer where Steve lead them down the utility stairs before coming out onto the basement landing where they were met by a member of Beta Squad.

  “What is the situation?” Katherine pushed forward as the serviceman snapped to attention.

  “We have seen no sign of life since we arrived at the entry point skipper.”

  Katherine glanced back at Joshua, Tom and Steven. The rest of Alpha Squad looked hungry. After the disappointment of missing Hyde, they wanted to get a spike of satisfaction by attacking anything that had the smell of the Alliance about them.

  “Let’s go and take a look.”

  The serviceman, Jones, lead them through more narrow corridors and utility rooms until they came to what was clearly a rarely used part of the basement area. It was here; from a recessed niche that the second group gained unobserved access to Federation House. A small service hatch to the buildings power and water junctions was opened and the floor around the door had been swept clean by countless footsteps.

  “Do we have any plans for what lies beyond?” The warrant officer for Beta Squad handed her a datapad.

  “It’s here Ma’am.”

  “Thank you Magyar.” She tapped the datapad, bringing up the section of the blueprint that she needed. This access leads to three separate utility junctions that in turn were connected by various small tunnels to the facilities that powered the rest of the city. A frown deepened her forehead; it was going to be like trying to find a needle in a haystack; hard, but not impossible.

  “A lot of possible ambush points,” Tom said looking at the ‘pad over her shoulder. “Why didn’t they just mine the foundations and blow the place?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe they wanted to make sure John and maybe Josh was dead and couldn’t risk them surviving a blast?” Katherine’s frowned deepened. “They very nearly succeeded there.”

  “Perhaps they were on a search and capture operation.”

  Both Katherine and Tom turned to look at Joshua.

  “Search and capture?”

  “You know what I’m talking about Kath.”

  Katherine saw Tom grimace at Joshua’s use of her pet name but she ignored him. She knew exactly what the Val Myran was talking about. “This has nothing to do with your brother.”

  “No, but I think it has everything to do with you.”

  Her head jerked as if she had been slapped and Katherine felt her tenuous empathic connection to Tom fire up between them as her emotional barrier dropped. He felt her shock and Tom moved angrily towards Joshua. Assault rifles swung up uncertainly as Alpha and Beta Squads responded to the Second Officer’s aggressive move.

  “Thomas!” Katherine grabbed his arm and hauled him to a stop. Katherine felt a spark of guilt. “Everyone, stand down!” She should have told him what was discussed with her brother last night; she should have told him a little of what had happened on Yunga; she should have-. Katherine felt a tug at her mind and when she suddenly found Tom looking down at her, she quickly threw up the barriers again. Katherine turned angry eyes on Joshua, who through all this had not stepped away from the lieutenant.

  “You think they came to get me.” She felt her anger but it wasn’t directed at Joshua.

  “The personnel attacking your brother’s position could have easily killed them, but something held them back. If you remember, we were supposed to have gone back to Kirk’s office after lunch. But we didn’t.”

  “No. We didn’t,” Katherine numbly repeated as realization set in.

  “There were two men and a woman in that room, which is what they were expecting plus any personal security-”

  “What are you both talking about?” Tom interrupted making Katherine remember that she had armed personnel around her waiting for orders. She gestured for Tom and Joshua to move further down the corridor. “Tran, Magyar. We’ll be heading in, have everyone do an equipment check.

  “Yes Skipper.”

  They moved down the corridor out of causal earshot of the squad.

  “What is going on?” Tom came to meet her, separating them from Joshua.

  “It has to do with my meeting with John last night. He told me the second reason why he wanted me here.

  “And that reason had you out roaming the streets alone?”

  “Look Tom, we don’t have time for this. Just listen to me. I was going to brief you tonight but the issue has been forced sooner.” Katherine waved Joshua over to join them, quelling Tom’s objections with an iron grip on his arm. “John had told me that Naval Intelligence is of the opinion that the attacks on Val Myra and Adveral are connected to my actions on Yunga.”

  “Yunga?”

  “Yes. It turns out that the man I bought out with me is Joshua’s brother Daniel, who had only just been released by the Federation a month ago to return home.”

  Tom slipped his arm from Katherine’s grip. “Adveral was attacked not long after you were released home.”

  Katherine nodded. “Intelligence says that the Black Ops Group who ran Yunga want us both back. They don’t know why they want us, but the fact that they do makes Navy Intel want to disappoint them. The ‘SIDS want me to get Daniel back.”

  “You’ve got to be joking.”

  “No. I’m not.”

  “But if they are really after you, Intelligence has just placed you in the perfect spot for them to get you. They are forcing you straight into the lion’s maw.”

  “They seem to think that I am the only one who can pull him out.”

  Tom turned to Joshua. “And you think that this attack on a secure facility was orchestrated to get Katherine into their hands?”

  Joshua nodded.


  ”Christ!” Tom stepped away from them, shaking his head. “This sounds insane,” he muttered.

  “This is a direct order from Fleet.”

  “And what of Hyde?”

  “Intel says that he is leading the Op.”

  “What a lucky break for us.”

  “Cut the sarcasm Tom.”

  Tom stood fuming a moment and Katherine let him. Once it had burned out he would become his most practical self again.

  “Okay,” he finally said. “I can now understand why Val Myra is here, but why you?”

  “Tom, I’m telling you to not push this point.”

  “Is that an order?”

  She glared at her Second Officer and she felt the mask of her command authority slam down immediately over her. Tom is no longer her best friend, he is her subordinate. “Yes it is Lieutenant.”

  Tom straightened, and from the hard set to his jaw he was angry. Katherine did not care, just as long as he did not buck her. “Yes Ma’am.”

  “Hyde? Are you both talking about Nigel Hyde?”

  “Do you know him?” Katherine asked, keeping her eyes on Tom.

  “No. Not personally, I’ve seen him a few times though when he’s come to see my father for the ceremonial visits. But he’s from a Val Myran enclave to the north of the Capital.” Joshua’s face grew grim. “He is Val Myra’s most decorated naval officer and the Alliance favored him. He is regarded by fellow Val Myrans as a war hero, a symbol of what Val Myra is capable of. Are you both suggesting that he attacked his own people?”

  “He was the one who arranged the attack on Adveral colony, and our intelligence says that he did the exact same thing to Val Myra. From my own experience, the man has no care for human life whether Federation or Alliance, as long as he gets what he wants.”

  “That shows what Val Myrans are capable of.” Tom could not help himself, he did not like the way this man looked at his Skipper. He did not fully trust him.

  “I just can’t believe it.”

  Joshua’s mind retreated back in shock and Katherine quickly darted him a question before she lost him.

  “Josh, listen to me.” She placed enough command in her voice to make the military part of him automatically respond and bring his mind back to his situation.