The Winter War (30 page)

The crew, it seemed, were still
in shock from the explosion. Maybe some of the radiation damage had
penetrated the hull and done her job for her, though that might be
bad since it could have damaged the electronics. The only thing
which had saved her and Ella was the thick Plascrete wall between
them and the detonation. As she ran up the, still open, rear gate
she made a mental note to never use one of those grenades
again.

The ramp led into a small
staging area, and then to a flight of stairs which brought her up a
level. There had been a visible cockpit window above the nose and
she expected the crew to be there. Two of them, as Al had said,
probably with side arms. She swallowed. She was trained to fight,
but she rarely had to actually engage in combat. Her eyes darted
left and right, checking the doorways along the corridor, but she
saw nothing until she reached the forward section of the craft.

A bulky, slightly squat figure
appeared ahead of her, raising a pistol. She recognised the
digitigrade posture and the blunt face behind the helmet: a
Herosian. Then she fired, the beam searing through his armoured
shipsuit like the proverbial knife through butter. There was a
vague look of surprise on his face just before his chest collapsed
into a burned hole and he fell over.

‘That’s enough of that.’ The
voice came from behind her. ‘Put the rifle down. I’m sure you know
what these things can do. If you don’t want your body painting the
walls, you’ll do as I say.’

Dropping the rifle to her side,
but not the floor, Justine turned slowly to face the owner of the
voice. Another Herosian, this one a little taller with more
musculature and insignia which marked him as a unit commander. He
was holding a blaster rifle, not a pistol.

‘Very good,’ he said. ‘Now you
will tell me what I want to know. Where is Winter?!’

~~~

The diagnostics were not looking good.
Power fluctuations, synchronisation errors in control circuitry,
she was a mess. Aneka opened her eyes and pushed herself over onto
her back, wincing at the effort.

‘Oh thank Vashma!’ Ella said.
‘We have got to talk about you wearing armour.’

‘I took an antimatter burst in
the back, love,’ Aneka replied weakly. ‘I think armour would have
had a limited effect.’

‘It might have kept you on your
feet, and you’ve got no skin on your back.’

‘Yeah… Well give me a day and
I’ll be as pretty as ever. Where’s Justine?’

‘She went out to capture the
ship.’

‘Al,’ Aneka asked silently, ‘can
you get a link to her?’

‘She used one of those grenades
on the thing outside,’ Ella went on. ‘Frankly, I’m afraid to look.
Shot the merc that shot you first and then… It sounded like someone
blew the universe apart out there.’

‘Connection to her suit
established,’ Al said. ‘Her internal radio has too limited a
range.’

‘Patch in her view.’ Aloud she
said, ‘War said they were vicious weapons. They went into her
category of “uncivilised devices.”’ A picture appeared in Aneka’s
view. It showed a Herosian in some sort of shipsuit holding a
rifle. ‘Shit… Ella, Justine’s in trouble. I’m going to be useless
for three or four hours and next to useless for ten. You have to go
help her.’

‘Me?!’

The response was expected. ‘You
can do this, love. You held out on Eshebbon for weeks before I got
to you. You can use that pistol. Take it slowly, stay calm and
quiet. It looks like the guy who has the drop in her is facing away
from the door.’

Ella picked up her pistol.
‘O-okay. Wish me luck.’ She got to her feet and started for the
hole where the door had been.

‘You don’t need it,’ Aneka told
her, ‘but good luck anyway.’

~~~

‘I don’t understand,’ Justine said.
‘Winter was assassinated, probably by you people. I saw the news
feeds. Someone blew her head off.’

‘We both know that was not the
real one,’ the Herosian replied. ‘We both know that the real Winter
is somewhere else, running things from behind the scenes, just as
she always has. Her interference continues and we will not have it.
Where is she?’

‘I don’t know anything of the
kind,’ Justine replied. ‘I run this safe house for her. That’s all
there is to it.’

‘You have killed my men. You
have weapons which exceed the technology available to the
Federation…’

‘So do you. Antimatter blasters,
that battlesuit. A miniaturised reactor like that is beyond
anything the Herosians are supposed to have. You got the technology
from Xinti wrecks, right?’

The lizard-like man sneered; not
an easy expression to pull off through a helmet and with thick
lips. ‘You underestimate the Herosian race…’

‘No, I don’t. You barely managed
to cobble together a warp drive after the Xinti handed it to you on
a plate. The Humans managed it in a generation. The Xinti almost
gave up on you ever managing it, and then you went and wiped out
the Aromans just to get your hands on their planet. You’re
short-lived, stupid, and incredibly arrogant. The real mistake the
Xinti made was to let any of you screaming nutjobs live after
Aromineus!’

The Herosian lifted his rifle.
‘Are those your last words, Jenlay?’

‘No,’ Justine replied. ‘You’re
also easy to distract.’

Swallowing hard, Ella aimed her
pistol and shot the Herosian in the back.

Herosian Gunship, 16.8.527 FSC.

The gunship had a small sickbay. Aneka
did not really need to be in it, but it had seemed like a good idea
that she rest there while she healed, or repaired, herself. She was
lying, naked, on the room’s medical couch, on her stomach, while
Ella fussed over her. Aneka did not like lying on her stomach, her
chest was really not designed for it and there were various pillows
propped under her to make it more comfortable, and she did not
really want to be fussed over, but Ella was reacting badly to the
events of the previous day and the fussing distracted her. A little
anyway.

‘I’ve never killed anyone
before,’ Ella said. ‘Not like that. People died on Eshebbon, but
they were dead or dying already. And I shot him in the back…’

‘He was going to kill Justine,
Ella,’ Aneka replied.

‘I know, but I just froze. She
had to take the gun out of my hands. I just stood there…’

‘Then it’s a good thing you
killed him with the first shot.’

‘Yeah… I guess… He really
stank.’

Aneka giggled. ‘Laser burns will
do that.’

‘It’s not funny!’

‘If you’ve got down to “he
smelled bad after I shot him,” then it’s funny.’

Ella was starting to get over
her shock, Aneka could tell from the way her lips twitched as she
tried to avoid grinning. ‘Maybe. A little.’

‘I’d like to say it gets easier,
but I don’t think you know if it’s going to until the second time…
And I’d prefer it if you never had to do it a second time. That’s
what I’m here for.’

‘Except that you’re lying there
with your back opened up like you’ve got
really
bad sunburn.
If you’re going to be the one saving me from having to kill people,
then you better stop getting yourself hurt.’

‘Okay, okay, I’ll wear more
armour. Oh enough of this, everything’s basically functional…’
Aneka twisted around so that she could sit up.

‘You’ve still got no back,’ Ella
told her.

‘So? I won’t put anything over
it and it’ll heal. My systems are basically functional. It’s
primarily cosmetic damage left to fix up and are you really saying
you don’t want to watch me walking around naked?’

‘Well I’ll be a lot happier
about it when you’ve got a back.’

Aneka grinned and shook her
chest. ‘I’ll make sure you’re always in front of me.’

Ella rolled her eyes.

FSA Headquarters.

Dowler was not happy. The office of the
head of the FSA was supposed to be sacrosanct. The only people
allowed admittance were the head, his assistant, and someone the
head had invited. Senator Elroy and the man standing beside the
door wearing dark glasses and, patently obviously from the bulge in
his jacket, a very large handgun, had not been invited.

‘You have placed various members
of FSA staff on administrative leave,’ Elroy was saying. ‘It would
appear that some form of investigation into the affairs of the
previous Winter has been initiated, yet no such investigation has
been recorded, no staff have been assigned to it, and there appears
to be no grounds for such an investigation in the first place.’

Dowler did his best to unclench
his jaw. He tended to grind his teeth and his orthodontist had
warned him that serious work would be required to repair the damage
if he continued. ‘What was your question, Senator?’

Elroy looked at him. The man was
attempting to play politics. Very well. ‘Why have these people been
excluded from the Agency?’

‘I have reason to believe that
Winter was operating this Agency as her private army,’ Dowler said.
‘The agents removed from active duty were those closest to her and
are therefore suspects or material witnesses.’

‘And you have evidence of
this?’

‘Purely circumstantial…’

‘Perhaps you should interview
your material witnesses rather than leaving some of our most
effective agents out in the cold.’

‘I would rather wait until I
have more…’

‘You have a day.’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘One day, twenty hours, as of
now. I’ve already arranged the required signatures to have you
replaced. We have a group of unknown terrorists attacking our
shipping, assaulting our facilities with heavy weapons, and
assassinating our key personnel. Instead of investigating that, you
have engaged in a witch hunt.’

‘Senator, the investigation into
the terrorist group is still ongoing…’

‘Without some of the best agents
in the organisation assisting it!’ Elroy rarely raised his voice,
when he did, he went all out. ‘One day, Dowler, then we replace you
with someone competent.’ Turning, the tall Senator stalked out of
the room.

Marcus Dowler ground his
teeth.

Herosian Gunship.

‘You’re up and about,’ Justine said,
‘if not entirely whole.’ She was sitting in the pilot’s seat for no
other reason than that it was a seat.

Aneka grinned. ‘As I told Ella
when she got her breast enhancements, I haven’t been able to lie on
my stomach for most of my life. It’s not comfortable. I’m
functional and there’s no point in me lying there like a beached
whale.’

‘I’m not going to ask,’ Ella
said; she had no clue what a whale was. ‘She’s right though,
there’s no point.’ She dropped into the co-pilot’s seat with a
sigh.

‘So,’ Aneka said, ‘where is it
we’re going?’

‘We’re going to meet up with
Winter. In this bucket it’s going to take a while. We’ll be flying
for another… thirty-six days. That’s why I brought rations aboard,
as well as the entire armoury. That safe house is compromised.’ She
looked sad about it. Aneka wondered how long she had been living
there. ‘Things have become… very complicated.’

Aneka looked at her for a
second. ‘Which Winter is it that we’re going to see, exactly?’

‘We know she had doubles,’ Ella
added. ‘She came to our registration party and then we saw that she
had been at a meeting at the same time.’

Justine’s eyebrows rose. ‘That
was sloppy. Maybe she’s getting tired…’ She shook her head. ‘The
various doubles, as you call them, are supposed to be a
secret.’

‘Well either they’re very
dedicated, or they’re something else,’ Aneka said. ‘I saw one die
in the bunker in the Islands, and then a new Winter appears to
debrief us and send us off to Odanari.’

‘They won’t be doing it again,’
Justine replied. ‘Winter was assassinated in front of news cameras
a few days ago.’

Ella’s jaw was hanging open. She
snapped it shut. ‘T-two of them have died? How many does she
have?’

Justine grimaced. ‘I’d really
prefer it if she explained it. It’s, well, complicated.’

‘There’s a lot of that going
around,’ Aneka commented. ‘We can wait. But we’re going to meet the
real Winter this time?’

‘Oh yes,’ Justine said
emphatically. ‘And that worries me more than anything.’

High Yorkbridge, New Earth, 17.8.527
FSC.

‘Have you any idea what this is
about?’

Elroy glanced at his companion.
Senator Diana Ollander was a striking woman who kept her figure
trim and her black hair long, and was quite happy to use her looks
to further her career. She was wearing a low-cut, short dress which
looked quite business-like, but also showed off her long legs and
expansive cleavage. Elroy happened to know that she was also a
consummate politician, however. She was just using every advantage
she had.

‘I’m hoping that Dowler will be
announcing his resignation,’ Elroy replied, ‘but I expect him to
fight his corner.’

‘The man makes my skin crawl.’
At least she had good taste. ‘How did he get the job in the first
place?’

‘Usually we have some notice and
we have a replacement for the position ready. This time we needed
someone on an interim basis. Dowler has been administering the
Peacekeepers along the Herosian border region for the last three
decades. The Herosians have been bitching about having one of
theirs in charge of the Agency since the last Winter was appointed.
They like Dowler so he was a politically low-risk option.’

‘Expediency. Huh. If he’s been
running the Herosian region, what was he doing on New Earth?’

‘He was called back for a
security briefing. There have been attacks on shipping in that
region.’

‘Well, lucky he was here… For
him anyway.’

‘Quite.’ They had reached the
door of the meeting room they were going to. Elroy held it open for
Ollander and then followed her through. There were already a dozen
or so Representatives from New Earth in the room, as well as the
Torem and Herosian ambassadors. The latter two surprised Elroy, and
he did not like surprises.