The aspirant, p.20
The Aspirant, page 20
‘The house is shielded,’ shouted Zaphir.
‘And mined – seemingly,’ said Bache as Stavri strolled casually into the room wearing old-fashioned military fatigues and a blue half-moon monocle over his right eye.
‘Sorry about the noise, chaps,’ he said, pointing at a large media screen attached to one wall. ‘You can watch the rest of it here as I have it going out live on most of the networks.’
‘You’ve what?’ said Bache.
They turned to face the screen. There was a view of the house from above with all six burning aircraft and the grounds littered with bodies. A moving headline across the top stated “Breaking news – Unidentified mercenary force attacks media mogul's residence – A police spokesman has admitted they don’t know who the attackers are yet, but they appear to be using stolen GDA military hardware.”
Bache looked back over his shoulder.
‘How have you got a police quote so quickly, it only happened three minutes ago?’
Stavri winked back and tapped the side of his nose, as a newsreader's voiceover caught Bache’s attention.
“A recent development coming from one of the injured attackers is the failed mission was an unauthorised private operation sanctioned by Admiral Hiss. A spokesman for the GDA navy has admitted the admiral has gone missing and if anyone has information on his whereabouts, please inform your local police. Do not attempt to approach him as he is known to be armed and extremely dangerous.”
Bache noticed that Stavri was speaking all the time the newsreader was speaking until it dawned on him that Stavri was the newsreader.
The picture changed to one of a rather harried-looking, legitimate presenter in a studio somewhere, who quickly took over the live coverage. Stavri switched through all the major networks and appeared extremely happy that the attack and supposed hunt for the rogue admiral was being picked up by them all.
‘That’ll rattle their cage a trifle,’ he said. ‘Fancy some breakfast?’
38
Stavri House, Potamaki Peninsular, Dasos
Felgrin came sprinting into the kitchen half dressed, with Junn not far behind.
‘What the skata just happened?’ he said. ‘I couldn’t open my door.’
‘Sorry about that,’ said Stavri, as he turned off the rushberry juicer. ‘It’s an automatic security precaution when the house detects attack. It would have protected you from the explosive panels and auto lasers in the hallway.’
‘Your house is wired to explode?’ said Junn, looking nervously around at the walls.
‘Only if breached,’ he said, nonchalantly. ‘Want some juice?’
They all looked at each other and shook their heads incredulously.
‘You all need to gather your stuff as well,’ he said. ‘We need to hide you for a while as the local police will be here shortly.’
Bache looked out the window.
‘We can’t get out,’ he said. ‘The whole bloody garden’s on fire.’
‘And there might still be some attackers left alive,’ said Felgrin.
‘Oh dear, you have so little faith,’ said Stavri. ‘You really think I have all this security and then neglected an emergency exit?’
He glanced over to a media panel on the kitchen wall. He changed the news feed to a view from a drone above the property. The driveway through the forest was full of police and outside broadcast news teams, some from his organisation and many others.
‘I’ll have to turn off the shield shortly and go and greet everyone, so time is of the essence.’
They quickly gathered their things and Stavri took them all down to the basement level.
‘Leave all your tablets in here,’ he said, opening a hidden strong room. ‘That’s the only way they could’ve found you.’
‘But they’ll detect them here, won’t they?’ said Bache.
‘No, this room is permanently shielded and completely hidden.’
Bache wasn’t too worried about leaving it, he’d downloaded everything onto his organic chip, anyway.
Stavri sealed the strong room, went to the end of the corridor and placed his hand on the wall. A light behind scanned his palm and a section of the wall sank inwards and to the side, revealing a stone staircase heading downwards.
‘Follow this right to the end,’ he said. ‘You’ll have the choice of staying put, or using the available resources.’
‘What are they?’ asked Zaphir.
‘You’ll see,’ he said, ushering them inside. ‘See you all soon.’
The panel slid back into place and the complete darkness was only momentary as small lights illuminated, spaced every few metres down the stairs.
They followed the tunnel down for quite a way before it levelled out and continued on with a slight bend to the left. After around five hundred metres a dead end faced them, and Bache was beginning to wonder about how it opened, when it did exactly that.
As the end of the passage slid to one side, they entered what could only be described as a panic room. It was about five metres square with small thin rectangular windows at head height that Bache immediately noticed were at ground level, just inside the tree line and looked out on all four sides, over the ocean and back into the forest.
Below the windows were rows of screens showing everything happening at the house. They could see Stavri standing proudly on his steps outside the front door being interviewed by at least twenty journalists and camera operators.
In the background, police and the emergency services were busy extinguishing fires and checking for any live attackers.
‘Is there any sound?’ asked Junn.
Bache surveyed the small control panel for anything that resembled a volume control; finding none, he touched the screen in question and several icons appeared. One was for sound up and Stavri’s unmistakable voice grew in volume as he touched it.
‘—is correct. I was here alone and still in bed when the attack came and to answer your question about who ordered the attack, we already know it was Admiral Hiss, most likely under instructions from Ambassador Laraccorz Flast.’
A collective gasp from the group was clearly audible.
‘What proof do you have that one of our most prominent GDA Ambassadors was involved?’ one interviewer shouted.
‘We were about to break a story showing Ambassador Flast and his wife, Ystolion, were responsible for the assassination of President Dranish Kess and the genocidal attack on Quillon III—’ another huge gasp, ‘—as it has come to light Kess was about to award the settlers on Quillon III mining rights for a newly discovered huge duradium ore find near the settlement.’
Pandemonium reigned as Stavri handed out data chips containing all Bache’s video and audio evidence. He held his hand up for silence and spoke again.
‘Over the last few days, the Flasts have been hunting and systematically killing anyone involved with their murderous and corrupt plans. This has been mostly undertaken by a felonious Skirmat Eagle officer by the name of Detective Lieutenant Deppslitt along with Captain Vend of the GDA Cruiser Proklisi. These two criminals are also directly responsible for the destruction of the GDA Destroyer Vasilias and the murder of its entire crew.’
Bache shook his head.
‘Well, there’s no hope of putting that lot back in the bottle,’ he said. ‘It’s all out there now.’
Meanwhile, Stavri had more and you could hear a pin drop as he continued with every newsfeed in central GDA space hanging on every word.
‘I have a list of names here of heroes who have already tried to uncover these monstrous crimes over the last few days and have now mysteriously gone missing. Lieutenant Tyrett Shazz; Corporals Gyton Kil’nur and Silvanner Twynner; Chief Engineer Gastion Whipper and his daughter, Grogun Whipper; Retired Chief Engineer Halti Smeed and his son Felgrin Smeed; Tug Pilot, Torritheon Gaddontoe; Zaphir Mye from Shand; Junn Alignon from Dasos and Bache Loftt from Deelatayne. I am personally, and I know other networks want to contribute too, offering a large reward for the safe return of these galactic heroes and I pray to our ancestors that we’re in time. If you have any information regarding their whereabouts, please contact your nearest police information node or me at any Crighton Roe Media outlet. Thank you very much.’
‘He’s good, isn’t he?’ said Bache. ‘He even included us, so his network gets all the plaudits when he presents us safe and sound.’
‘What do we do now then?’ asked Junn.
‘We could go fishing,’ said Felgrin, after touching a previously blank screen in the corner of the room. It showed the inside of a wooden building, containing a rather fast looking powerboat.
‘Where’s that?’ asked Zaphir.
‘It’s below us in the cove,’ said Junn. ‘I’ve been down there before, although that boats new.’
‘It won’t be safe walking out in the open and anyway, how would we get out of here?’ said Zaphir, knocking on the solid windows.
‘Through here,’ said Felgrin, unbolting and opening a hatch in the floor. He stuck his head down. ‘It’s steps heading down in the right direction.’
He went first and this time the stone steps went down and down and down, seemingly forever.
‘We must be at sea level by now,’ said Zaphir, from the back, after a few minutes descending. ‘I sincerely hope it’s not flooded and we have to go back up.’
‘It’s okay,’ said Felgrin. ‘It levels out here and I can smell the sea.’
A couple of hundred metres later, another of Stavri’s sliding doors opened into the boat shed. Two of its walls were solid rock, with the remainder constructed from huge roughhewn tree trunks that had weathered to look almost as dark as the rock.
A planked walkway stretched around the walls of the building and in the centre the powerboat sat bobbing slightly in its made-to-measure mooring.
‘Skata – look at that,’ said Felgrin. ‘It looks like five hundred kilometres per hour just standing still.’
The boat, roughly twenty metres long, was dark blue, super sleek, had a needle prow, and at the blunt stern three jet nozzles big enough to stick your head in lurked just below the waterline.
Bache climbed on board and checked below decks.
‘There’s dried food stocks, plenty of water, and three cabins,’ he said, sticking his head back up into the covered control cabin.
They all looked at each other and shrugged.
‘Well?’ said Zaphir. ‘Do we stay here or go boating?’
‘Remember – I don’t have a good record with boats,’ said Bache.
‘I’ll drive then,’ said Felgrin, jumping up onto the fly bridge and caressing the throttle levers with undisguised reverence.
‘Be my guest,’ said Bache. ‘Junn, can you see how the front door opens?’
‘There’s a lever over here,’ she said, from the front of the shed.
‘Be ready to cast off the bow too,’ said Felgrin, pressing the three start-up buttons on the dash. The deep rumblings from below as the three big motors turned over and growled into life, produced a grin from ear to ear. Junn twisted the lever to the up position and an electric motor powered the rustic door up and away.
‘Are we all ready?’ called Felgrin.
‘I am,’ shouted Deppslitt, as he and four other black-clad soldiers jumped down some steps onto the jetty from a ledge just above the door, their sleek black military pulse rifles in the shoulder and covering all four of them in seconds.
39
Stavri’s Boat House, Potamaki Peninsular, Dasos
Bache swore under his breath as his eyes met Felgrin’s. They were all unarmed and with their only weapon, Zaphir’s pistol, sitting in her bag at her feet, they had no choice but to surrender.
‘Got nothing to say for yourselves?’ growled Deppslitt. ‘You seem to have a lot to say to the media.’
Another boat came roaring up to the boat shed and blocked their exit. Six soldiers in camouflage style uniforms and helmets covering their faces stood on deck, their weapons trained into the boat shed.
Deppslitt looked confused for a moment, pulled out his identification and marched down the jetty towards the newcomers.
‘Skirmat business, gentlemen,’ he said holding up his badge. ‘You can stand down.’
The bolt from a laser rifle startled them all. Deppslitt spun around, a look of shock on his face as he collapsed with half his neck missing, blood pulsing from the wound, dropping through the planks into the water below.
The other four black-clad soldiers turned quickly but were all hit from fire from the other boat. The thud of their bodies and the clatter of their weapons hitting the planked jetty was over in three seconds.
‘Mother of skata,’ said Felgrin, as the four of them stood rock still, their hands up where they could clearly be seen.
The sudden eerie screech of a sea bird overhead made Bache flinch as he watched the soldier who’d shot Deppslitt jump down onto the jetty and stroll casually towards them. He was clearly in command as the other five kept their weapons in the shoulder covering him and the interior of the boat house. He stopped to roll Deppslitt over with his boot and glanced down at his handiwork. Seemingly happy with what he saw, he nodded and continued towards them.
‘Been having quite the adventure, haven’t you?’ he said, the electronic voice from the helmet echoing off the rock walls.
He reached the powerboat's cabin and surveyed the four frightened faces staring back at him, finally lingering on Zaphir.
‘Hello, Zaffie girl,’ he said, reaching up to remove his helmet.
Zaphir cried out, a cross between a scream and a shout of anguish.
The soldier dropped his helmet and weapon as Zaphir launched herself at him and enveloped her in his arms.
Bache noticed the shocked expression on Felgrin and Junn’s faces and knew his wouldn’t be any different. He nodded his understanding as he noticed the eagle's head patch sewn onto the right arm of the soldier’s tunic.
‘You’re her father?’ he said, relaxing as the nerves of the last few minutes dissipated.
He nodded slowly as Zaphir sobbed into the front of his uniform.
‘You bastard,’ she cried. ‘I really believed they’d killed you.’
‘Sorry, little one,’ he said softly. ‘With the seriousness of this operation, there really wasn’t any other way.’
He looked up at Bache and smiled.
‘Well, young man – you’ve led us on a merry dance, haven’t you?’
‘I aim to please,’ said Bache. ‘Are we safe now?’
‘You are,’ he said, signalling for the other five soldiers to stand down.
‘What about my other friends?’
‘You mean the ones on the Katadromiko?’
‘Yes.’
‘They’re safe,’ he said. ‘I had them all secured there by men I trusted for their own security. When you were all running around independently, I wasn’t able to protect everyone from the Flasts and Deppslitt.’
‘Who are all these guys?’ asked Felgrin, pointing at the black-clad bodies.
‘Private contractors,’ he said. ‘We hadn’t realised quite how many the Flasts had on their payroll.’
‘Why has it taken so long for you to act?’ asked Bache.
Zaphir’s father looked out the front door for a moment and sighed.
‘Evidence,’ he said looking back at Bache. ‘You were doing so much better than us.’
‘So you were watching us all the time?’
‘Pretty much.’
‘How?’
‘Your organic chip.’
‘How did you find out about that?’
‘Your father,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t able to prevent the Flasts from killing Captain Galtermaine, but I was able to get your father incarcerated with the others on the Katadromiko.’
‘So that’s why I hadn’t heard from him,’ mumbled Bache. ‘What about the Overseer?’
‘The who?’ he asked.
‘The one the Flasts answer to.’
‘You believe there was someone else calling the shots?’ he said, raising his eyebrows. ‘Do you have any evidence for that?’
‘No.’
‘Hmm,’ he grunted. ‘We always believed Laraccorz Flast was the top player. He never involves himself directly in any of it, relying on his wife to do the dirty work.’
‘She certainly does plenty of that,’ said Junn.
‘You’re the housekeeper from the Kastro here, aren’t you?’ he said.
‘Used to be,’ she said.
‘We’ll certainly need you as a witness if all this comes to trial and that goes for the rest of you too. I’m not going to be arresting any of you for illegal organic data chips or anything.’ He gave Bache a noticeable glare. ‘But alternatively, I don’t want any of you disappearing either.’
‘Are we able to go home?’ asked Felgrin. ‘We have an engineering company to run.’
‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Just let me know where you are at all times and don’t disappear.’
‘Are you coming home with me?’ asked Zaphir, wiping her eyes with one hand and holding her father’s hand with the other.
‘Sorry, Zaffie girl,’ he said, brushing hair out of her eyes. ‘I think you realise this might take a while to finish up.’
‘You can come and stay with us on Deelatayne,’ said Bache. ‘I can teach you how to fly a skouter.’
Zaphir smiled and nodded.
‘You’re applying to the naval academy aren’t you?’ she said.
‘If they’ll have me now,’ Bache answered with a rueful expression.
Felgrin glanced down at the boat controls and listened to the engines still grumbling away beneath them.
‘Are we taking this beast out or am I turning it off?’ he asked.
‘So long as there’re no gunships going to blow holes in it this time,’ said Bache, looking at Zaphir’s father.
‘Go for your life,’ he said. ‘It’s not my boat and as of this morning the Flasts have no authority over any forces, their own or GDA.’
