Vengeance (The Kurgan War Book 4) (18 page)

“Miss Solari, I’ve got them on a secure channel,” announced a Hispanic woman sitting at a console.

Solari walked over, picked up a headset, and spoke into the mic. “Dorset, this is Tranquility, what is your status?”

“Everything went according to plan,” replied Miguel. “We control the station and the command center.”

“Is your perimeter secure?”

“Yes.”

“Casualties?”

“Only one. A human technician was killed during the initial assault.”

Solari smiled. They had done it. “Miguel, it won’t take the ADF long to figure out what has happened. Make sure that you can hold that base for at least twelve to twenty-four hours.”

“Don’t worry. I have sufficient firepower to keep a company of soldiers at bay. Besides, I have plenty of hostages. I can use them as human shields if need be.”

“Okay then. Good luck. I will be transmitting our demands to the federation president shortly.”

Solari placed the headset down and turned to look at a display screen on the wall. On it was an image of the station. She studied it for a minute before looking over at Williams. “Harry, are all of the station’s defensive weapons’ systems fully operational?”

Williams nodded and pressed a button on his keyboard. A second later, the automated gun batteries on the outer skin of the base showed up on the screen. Designed to protect the station from an enemy attack, the guns had been installed at the beginning of the war but were untried.

“What is their effective range?” asked Solari.

“I can create an impenetrable wall of fire out to five kilometers. After that the explosive warheads in the shells explode.”

Solari nodded and spoke to the comms operator. “Put me on the base’s PA system.”

“You’re on,” replied the woman.

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Lieutenant Monica Solari. My people and I now control Tranquility Station. What I need you to do is stay calm and remain where you are until this incident is brought to a peaceful conclusion. I know that there are several hundred armed guards trapped below deck with everyone else. If you attempt to take back this installation by force, I will be compelled to open the airlocks on the floor you are on, killing you and everyone around you. As we control the command center, I can see what is happening on each and every deck. Play it smart and sit tight.”

Solari ran a finger over her throat indicating to the operator to end the transmission. “Get me ADF Headquarters.”

“I have their operations room online,” said the Hispanic woman.

“Put them on the main screen.”

The image of an ADF colonel came up on the screen. Solari recognized him as General Sadir’s executive assistant. “Good evening, Colonel MacDonald, I take it General Sadir and President Martinez have been whisked away to the Eagle’s Rock.” In the event of a direct threat to the life of the federation president, he and his chief advisors would be taken to a secure location deep inside the Swiss Alps until the crisis was over.

“Yes, they are. Lieutenant, what is going on up there?”

“In the name of the Kurgan Empire, I have taken control of Tranquility Station.”

An exasperated look crept across the colonel’s face. “Lieutenant, you’re not making any sense. If this is some sort of joke, it is not the slightest bit funny. We’ve got hundreds of people killed and wounded in the streets down here. Where is General Wagner? I need to speak with him right away.”

Solari snapped her fingers. A second later, two men hauled Wagner over beside her. His face was bruised and there was a strip of electrical tape across his mouth.

“What the hell is going on?” demanded MacDonald. “Release the general this instant.”

“No,” Solari replied, shaking her head. “Now, Colonel, make sure you pay close attention to what I am about to say. You will contact the president and inform him that he has twenty-four hours to enter into ceasefire negotiations with the Kurgan Empire, or I will kill every living soul on board this station. As a demonstration of my resolve, I am going to throw General Wagner out of the nearest airlock.”

Wagner heard the words and struggled to escape but could not break the hold the two men had on him as he was dragged to the stairs and taken up to the next level where there was an airlock.

“Okay, Lieutenant, I see you mean business,” said MacDonald as he impotently watched Wagner being taken away to his death. “You can let the general go. I’ll get in touch with the president and pass on your message.”

Solari’s eyes lit up when she saw Wagner thrown into the airlock and the inner door closed, trapping him inside.
 

“Lieutenant, if you do this, you will be held responsible.”

“I don’t care. The man is a pig,” she replied, her voice as cold as ice.

On the screen, one of the imposters reached over and pressed a button on a wall panel. The outer door opened and Wagner shot out into the cold vacuum of space to die of asphyxiation.

Solari turned off the image from the airlock and switched her attention back to the main screen. “Colonel, I expect you to call me back in precisely one hour. I will have more directions for you at that time. One last thing, don’t try to storm this station. All of the perimeter guns are armed and operational. Any attempt will inevitably end in failure. Solari, out.”

The screen went dark.

Solari couldn’t but help but feel positive about how things were unfolding. Everything was going in their favor. She walked over to Williams’ station and looked down at the screen showing where all of her people were. She knew something was amiss when she noticed that the operatives sent to kill the human agent on the fourteenth floor weren’t moving. She tapped the monitor with her hand. “Bring up the cameras on the fourteenth floor.”

She gnashed her teeth at the sight of several bodies lying on the ground in a row and covered with blood-soaked sheets. There were several station guards walking back and forth near the remains to keep onlookers away. Her anger, held in check so far, exploded. She lashed out with her hand and struck Williams in the mouth. “They’re dead. They’re all dead. I knew I was wrong to let you play your little games with the humans. Luring your friend back to Earth was a mistake. Find the men who did this and kill them!”

Williams sat up in his chair, wiped the blood from his split lip, and smiled at Solari. If her violent outburst had bothered him, he didn’t let it show. Instead, he turned his attention back to the security monitor and ignored her.

Solari swore up a storm as she walked way. People in the room rushed to step to one side as she walked past them. When she was out of the control center, Williams reached down into a pocket on the leg of his coveralls and grabbed hold of a small communicator. He quickly typed in a message before placing the device back in his pocket.

The game was about to change.

Chapter 23

With a swing of his ax, Cole split the sealed elevator doors open. A second later, Sheridan reached over and held the doors while Cole jammed his ax into place propping them open. Both men climbed up into the loading dock. Sheridan turned around and yanked the tool free, allowing the doors to close.

A man in dirty coveralls sitting on a pile of crates saw them emerge and got to his feet. “Hey, didn’t you two idiots listen to that crazy woman’s warning? Are you trying to get us all killed?”

Cole never hesitated. Like a trap springing, he shot his right fist into the man’s face, knocking him out cold. He scowled at a group of men sitting at a nearby table and said, “Anyone else want to tell me what to do?”

The workers all shook their heads and looked away.

“Well, that’ll endear us to the people we’re trying to protect,” said Sheridan to his friend.

“Oh yeah, what would you have done?”

“Same thing, you just beat me to it,” Sheridan replied as he handed the ax back to Cole.

“That’s where we’re going,” announced Cole, pointing to a room further down the dock.
 

As they walked, Sheridan glanced up at a surveillance camera on the wall and saw that it wasn’t following them. He nudged Cole and said, “I don’t think we’re being monitored anymore. Either the jammers are doing their job or our friends have bigger fish to fry right now.”

“Even with a multi-billion credit computer system to keep this place running day and night, you still need someone to interpret what the cameras are seeing. Ten to one, there aren’t enough of them trained to sort through the information coming from the hundreds of cameras placed all over this station.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“When have I been wrong?”

Sheridan chortled. He was about to rattle off a list when the door to the airlock chamber opened. The room was a mess. Equipment and survival suits littered the floor.

“What a pigsty,” remarked Cole. “Someone’s not doing their job.”

After fifteen minutes of digging through the pile of suits, they were able to find two that were serviceable. The problem was that there was only one maneuver unit and it was only one-third filled with nitrogen gas to help them move around in the weightless environment of space.

“How long do you figure it’ll take us to get to the top of the station, Captain?” Cole asked.

“With this older model unit it should take us just over four minutes from here to the airlock on the arboretum.”

“There should be plenty of fuel in the tank for us to get there safely.”

“That’s not the problem. I’m not sure how we get inside the arboretum without setting off any alarms.”

Cole held up a master door key. “We’ll use this.”

Sheridan couldn’t believe their luck. “Where the hell did you find that?”

“It was on the floor next to the maneuver unit.”

“I wonder if they’re monitoring all of the airlocks?

“I would if I were them. If help comes from the outside, they’re going to have to come in via an airlock.”

Sheridan tapped the watch on his wrist. “Well, let’s hope they work under our suits and help us gain entry unnoticed or this will be for naught.”

“Amen to that. Come on, let’s get changed, and don’t even think about putting the maneuver unit on your back. I’m older than you and have way more experience at spacewalking than you do. We’ll tether ourselves together, and I’ll pull you along with me.”

Sheridan brought his hands up in front of him in surrender. “I’d never dream of it. I’m okay with just coming along for the ride. Just make sure you slow down so we don’t go flying past the airlock and keep going into outer space.”

“Okay, Captain, standby for the best spacewalk of your life. Trust me, you’ll tell your grandkids about this one.”

“Of that, I have no doubt.”

“Get dressed, Mister.”

Sheridan slid a leg inside his survival before looking over at Cole. “What about the station’s defensive gun batteries, do you think they’ll be operational?”

Cole shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out.”

“I’m sure this will be one trip I’ll never forget.”

Chapter 24

Admiral Oshiro sat staring at the images on the screens inside his operations center. Built three floors below ground, the ops room was expected to keep running even in the event of a targeted attack on the headquarters compound. On one screen was an APC being consumed in flames after being hit in the side by an anti-tank missile. On another were pictures of confused street fighting as Marines, soldiers, and police officers tried to discern who was an enemy operative and who was an innocent civilian caught between the two factions.
 

A side door opened. Admiral Parker strode in with a troubled look on his face. He looked over at the duty officer, a Marine lieutenant colonel, and said, “Status report?”

“Sir, all of the Chosen insurgent assaults on the headquarters have been repulsed,” replied the Marine officer. “The security force under Colonel Bianchi is currently engaged in mopping up operations in the buildings to the west and north of us.”

On a screen, thermal feed from a UAV showed a combat walker firing a sustained burst of armor piercing rounds into a truck that had tried to run a checkpoint at a nearby installation. The truck disintegrated in less than three seconds. There was no doubt the occupants had died under the torrent of lead.

“Casualties?” asked Oshiro.

“Admiral, the reports are still coming in. We won’t have an accurate total until the fighting dies down.”

“I understand that, Lieutenant Colonel Jacobs. What has been reported to you so far?”

Jacobs picked up his tablet and scrolled down until he found his casualty tracker. “Sir, we have sixteen dead, thirty-one wounded, and three missing. Most of our casualties occurred during the first wave of Chosen suicide bombers. I don’t have figures for the police or civilians killed in the fighting. Those probably will not be released for a day or two and only after the fire and rescue services have had a chance to sift through the rubble of the homes destroyed during the battle.”

“Have the other headquarters reported on what is happening in their vicinity?” asked Parker.

Jacobs brought up a map of the globe on the main screen. On it was all of the ADF Headquarters and major military installations. Almost all of them were tagged with a red circle indicating an emergency event was occurring. “Gentlemen, as seen on the screen, fighting is still ongoing at facilities all over the world. Thankfully, none of the attacks has succeeded in penetrating inside any of our bases. All of the t assaults have been repulsed with significant casualties reported to the Chosen rebels.”