Casserine (26 page)

“Point taken,” Mercer grinned. “Now put that antique away before I shove it up your ass.”

Sara landed Alpha Drop Ship as near to the entrance as she deemed safe. She had set it down so the exit, and return, would be a straight shot. Releasing the hatch locks, and lowering the hatch, she made a final check of her com unit. “You reading me, Charlie?”

“You bet, Sara,” Mercer replied, as he allowed a Marine to guide Jake out first, with a blaster to his head, and Taskoroff walking on the other side. “We’re on our way out. Keep her warmed up for us.”

“Will do, Charlie,” Sara chuckled. “Major Johnson, I’ll be closing the hatch up shortly. As soon as I get word from Charlie, Tim will wipe out everything breathing around the ship. The hatch will drop, and you will need to move quick.”

“We’ll be ready, Major,” Johnson said, as he hung back with the rest of the Marines. They could not be seen without actually stepping inside the ship.

A delegation of Earth Command staff met Taskoroff and the squad of Marines outside the Alpha Drop Ship. The leader of the Earth Command group stepped forward with his hands clasped behind his back. He wore a dark brown Earth Command uniform with billed officer’s hat and insignia of General in the special corps. Jake saw the Earth Command General wore rows of ribbons for medals Jake doubted even existed. The man stared up into Jake’s face, with the appearance of a mustachioed bulldog: all jowls and skin folds. His dark complexioned face and equally dark eyes gave no indication of anything but arrogant boredom.

Taskoroff snapped to attention, after glancing back at Mercer, who smiled, and patted the pocket of his armored top. Taskoroff saluted the General, who haphazardly returned the salute as he continued to stare at Jake.

“I’m happy to see you again, General Hassan,” Taskoroff said stiffly, reciting his practiced script convincingly. “As you can see, we have Matthews here. May I present my Chief of Staff, Major Charles Mercer.”

Mercer stepped up next to Taskoroff, and saluted the General, while holding at attention.

The General glanced at Mercer curiously. “Are you not the one who went down into the nests with this man?”

“Yes Sir,” Mercer answered smartly, ending his salute.

“Yet now you are Colonel Taskoroff s Chief of Staff,” Hassan said, as he clasped his hands behind him once again, and walked over in front of Mercer. “Do you not owe this man some loyalty?”

“I follow orders, Sir,” Mercer replied. “I was told he would be turned over as a traitor to Earth Command, and he is most definitely a traitor to Earth Command.”

Hassan nodded. “Very well then, hand the traitor over to the men with me, and this unpleasantness will be at an end.”

“Sir,” Taskoroff put in, and Hassan turned to him.

“Yes, Colonel?”

“Matthews made a deal with the United States to turn himself over of his own volition if he could first see his wife, and she would then accompany us back to the US,” Taskoroff replied.

Hassan shook his head slowly, looking down for a moment. “That will not be possible, Colonel. Earth Command Council has decided to keep Lieutenant Byers-Matthews. You will be permitted to see her in the council chamber, but then you must go. Take the Intrepid to the US, and inform them of our decision. If they protest, simply tell them to have their ambassadors contact us. They can file a grievance with the council at a later date.”

Hassan returned to stand in front of Jake again, who stared straight ahead over the five foot eight inch frame of Hassan. Mercer saw an evil, knowing glint come into the man’s eyes as he addressed Jake. “We most definitely will allow you to see your wife though, Matthews. I hope you will not be too disappointed. She was not as cooperative as we had hoped for.”

Hassan turned his back on the group, and with a condescending wave, he motioned for the group to follow him. Mercer exchanged a glance with Jake, who nodded imperceptibly, with one of the deadliest looks Mercer had ever seen. He leaned over to Taskoroff, and whispered.

“You’re doing fine T. Don’t forget, if you get any ideas, you won’t die like the rest. Take the lead.”

Taskoroff nodded, and led the Intrepid contingent on the heels of the Earth Command group. Mercer looked around, turning his head slowly. He could see a couple of hundred soldiers fanned out nonchalantly, as if they were only on breaks from their duties, but he noticed they were all armed to the teeth. He panned his helmet cam so Sara and Tim could get a good look at the outside defenses as he walked next to Taskoroff.

“Thanks for the view, Charlie,” Sara’s hushed voice said in his ear. “Tim’s plotting fire patterns even as we speak. That was a close one. I thought for a moment there Jake was going to burst right out of the energy cuffs.”

“That makes two of us,” Mercer whispered as he walked. “I think there’s going to be a small change of plans, so stay hot.”

“You bet.”

As they made their way through the entrance of the mammoth building, more soldiers appeared around them, to look over the small group of Marines from the Intrepid. The main council chamber was housed on the ground floor of the Earth Command Headquarters, just inside the entrance to the Complex. General Hassan and his group led the way inside the council chambers.

The sealed doors to the council chamber opened as the motion detectors sensed the approaching party, to reveal a huge multi-tiered meeting room. A lectern faced out at the rest of the General Assembly Area. Twelve men were seated at the long, upraised lectern, dressed in Earth Command military uniforms. But for soldiers grouped at the entrance, numbering about fifty, no other people were in attendance. Hassan’s group led the way down to the area right in front of the council lectern, where an oval area was set up for individual speaking, either out to the assembly, or up at the council lectern. An enhanced audio scan enabled the voices of anyone speaking within the oval area to be amplified and heard easily by both the council and general assembly.

When Hassan reached the oval speaking area, he gestured for the others accompanying him to be seated nearby. Hassan waited for Jake to be brought down in his familiar pose of head up, and hands clasped behind his back. As the last of the Marine squad escorting Jake walked onto the oval area, Hassan gestured for them to stop. Looking up at the twelve impassive faces seated at the council lectern, Hassan smilingly pointed at Jake.

“Our Colonel Taskoroff has brought the criminal Matthews before us here today for questioning, and eventual judgment,” Hassan said with an imperious tone. “We will soon have the rebel Risling in custody too, and this latest act of colonial treachery will be at an end.”

The representative from the Sudan, who acted as the Earth Command President, nodded in agreement. His country, Sudan, remained an impoverished dictatorship, and still regularly looked the other way, as Arab slave traders enslaved thousands of its citizens, just as they had done for centuries. He acted as the puppet leader of the assembly. The United Arab Emirate, which held the real reigns of power, used a twelve-member panel of third world representatives from the poorest countries on Earth to act as a front for them. The United States had been voted out of all positions of any real power, and its ambassadors were allowed only to speak to the assembly on an advisory basis.

Earth Command President, Teacupi Atton, spoke after glancing around at his fellow puppets. “That is indeed good news, General Hassan. We have it on good authority the fuel cell shipments will be back up to expectations very soon. Why are these men here with the traitor Matthews?”

Hassan looked back at Taskoroff, and gestured for him to answer the question. Taskoroff stepped forward, and Mercer kept by his side.

“If it please the council,” Taskoroff intoned. “The United States government obtained the surrender of General Matthews on the condition he could see his wife, and procure her release in exchange for his internment by the Earth Council. I understood this to have been agreed upon by the council. If.”

“I have informed the Colonel,” Hassan interrupted impatiently, “that this exchange will not take place. I am having his wife brought before Matthews here in the council chambers, and then they will both be held for interrogation. We will need her as a bargaining chip to secure the traitor’s continued cooperation.”

“Of course,” Teacupi Atton agreed, nodding in affirmation with the rest of his fellow council members. “Surely Colonel, the United States must realize they have no jurisdiction over these matters, and must abide by the council’s judgment. They should not have made such a request to begin with. As General Hassan explained, the parameters of this have changed.”

Jake turned his head slowly, to glance back at his Marine guard, who held his blaster at Matthews’ head. “Get ready, Vic.”

The Marine nodded, a grim smile his answer, as he tightened the grip on his weapon. Taskoroff snapped to attention before the council, and Mercer followed suit. Both men stepped back. A few moments later, the hatch at the rear left side of the chamber hissed open, and two soldiers escorted a limping Adrian Byers-Matthews into the chamber. Jake’s hands clenched into fists, as he saw her swollen face, and bandaged arms. The soldiers walked her into the oval area, to stand in front of Jake. Adrian looked up to him through eyes almost swollen shut. Her mouth turned up grotesquely at the corners of her lips, which were cut, and three times their normal size.

“Hi Honey,” She slurred.

Jake glanced back at Mercer and nodded. Mercer hit the button at his belt, and in the split second it took to reach for his own weapon, Jake beheaded both soldiers with his gear knife. While their headless corpses spurted blood, and weaved comically around before falling, Jake pulled Adrian off of her feet and down to the council floor. As the Marines opened fire on the soldiers at the entrance, Jake plucked the screaming General Hassan from his feet and slammed him into the lectern headfirst. He covered Adrian’s body with his own, as he hurried behind the lectern, carrying her as he would a child.

He set her down behind the lectern gently, eyeing the cringing council members, who huddled there too. Jake touched Adrian’s face gently. “Don’t look, Honey.”

In the meantime, after he released Jake, Mercer put in his call. “Let her rip Tim, we’re rolling right now.”

Mercer fired alongside his handpicked squad, and they did not disappoint him. They killed without hesitation, and with each blast, another soldier at the door died. Taskoroff had dived to the floor and covered his head, as he had been told to do. Mercer could hear bloodcurdling screams from behind him, but he could not do any more than risk a glance back. When he could see no danger, he returned to the job at hand. The Earth Command soldiers died in the first five minutes of conflict, and the Marines sustained only one man wounded in the shoulder.

The noise of the battle, taking place outside the chamber, could not be heard through the soundproofed walls of the chamber. An eerie silence reigned within, as the Marines stayed behind the first row of seats, keeping all hatches in the chamber under observation. Mercer crawled around the lectern, switching off his helmet cam, as he continued in the same direction he had seen Jake take his wife. He found Jake, covered in blood, with a protective arm around Adrian. Jake smiled when he saw who it was, and lowered his knife. Mercer looked beyond Jake to the bloody harvest of disemboweled and maimed corpses behind the lectern. Mercer smiled.

“Well, I can see we won’t have to waste valuable time taking prisoners for interrogation,” Mercer observed comically, while he handed Jake a blaster.

Jake picked up Adrian carefully from under the lectern, and stood up. Adrian put her arms around his neck, grimacing slightly because of the injuries. “I have one left to question. Hassan’s still alive.”

Mercer put up his finger, and then handed Jake a headset. ‘Tea, Sara, go ahead,” Mercer said. “The Chamber is secure.”

“Good deal,” Corey replied. “Major Johnson is outside the Chamber, and the first floor is secure. The only things Tim left living out here are a couple of flowers. You all can come out now. Do you need medical aid?”

“One walking wounded, and Jake will be carrying his wife,” Mercer replied. “We’ll be out as soon as we secure our prisoner.”

“See you on the outside, Charlie. Nicely done. Did you get all that, Major Johnson?”

“Yes Ma’am,” Johnson replied. “We’re in position to escort the Chamber party.”

Chapter 25 

Earth Command

Hassan felt as if his face were on fire, as Mercer woke him up with open handed slaps to his face, which whipped Hassan’s head from one side to another. When he cried out, Mercer paused. “Wakey, wakey, my little man.”

Hassan felt the bandage over his head. It ached ferociously, as his eyes began to water from the pain. He could feel the slight hum of a craft under his back. Sitting up carefully, he looked around, trying to avoid moving his neck. Over a thousand Marines were seated around him. He saw they wore the flag of the United States of America as a shoulder patch instead of the baby blue Earth Command patch. Taskoroff was seated next to a smiling Mercer.

“What is the meaning of this, Colonel?” Hassan accused. He saw Taskoroff cringe just before Mercer’s openhanded blow smashed Hassan onto his back again.

Hassan screamed out in a high-pitched voice, which caused the Marines to start laughing. They all knew Hassan had ordered the torture of Jake’s wife. Hassan had not cared to know the fact Adrian had returned on the Intrepid to begin with, for the express purpose of administering to the wounded Marines. Many of the men on the Alpha Drop Ship had also been on the botched Earth Command mission to Bougainville. They had been taken off the Intrepid just before Taskoroff ordered the Intrepid to proceed to Earth Command, where he subsequently turned Adrian over to the council. Only the promise of this mission by the President himself had kept the Marines from a rogue operation to get her back.

Mercer pulled Hassan back up to a sitting position. “You think that hurt, you little pussy? Wait until I introduce you to Mr. Snappy.”

Taskoroff unconsciously moved away from Mercer, who noticed the Colonel’s movement, and laughed uproariously. He let go of Hassan and sat back down next to Taskoroff, putting his arm around Taskoroff s shoulders as if they were good friends. “T, where ya goin’? You and me are a team now. You don’t ever have to see Mr. Snappy again, do you?”

Taskoroff shook his head violently in the negative. Hassan could see the man’s hands tremble, as they were locked in front of him on his lap, clasped tightly to control the shaking.

“No S…Sir,” Taskoroff stammered. “Just tell me…anything…anything…”

Mercer clapped him on the back good naturedly, as the Marines within hearing listened to the master at work. Looking back over to Hassan, Mercer disengaged himself from Taskoroff, and moved closer to Hassan. “It was all I could do to keep Jake from carving you up when his wife told him you had ordered her beaten. You ain’t going to live through this, you worthless piece of shit, but you can make your demise a much more mundane experience if you cooperate fully. The US still is a little backwards about torturing yellow bastards like you, but us folks from out in the colonies don’t get upset by stuff like that. We’re more of an eye for an eye group, so we will have everything you know before we get to the US.”

“I will tell you nothing,” Hassan hissed, moving back away from

Mercer.

Before he went more than a few feet, the Marine named Vic, who had been Jake’s guard, dropped down from where he was seated. In an instant, the young Marine had a razor sharp knife under Hassan’s right ear. With one quick swipe, he was holding the ear in his hand. Hassan screamed again, clasping his hands over the bloody spot where his ear had been. Vic stood up and threw the man’s ear down next to Hassan. He looked straight at Mercer then, and came to attention.

“Sorry Sir,” the young Marine said. “Lieutenant Matthews saved my brother’s life on the way back from Bougainville. When I saw what this turd did to her…I…I lost it. I’ll turn myself in when we get back to the US.”

Mercer smiled, and looked around at the other seated Marines. “Anyone know what Private McClure is talking about?”

There was some laughter, and a chorus of no’s. The whimpering Hassan had curled up on the floor. Mercer stood up and walked over to McClure, and gestured for him to sit back down. McClure saluted, and returned to his seat. One of the other Marines had already pulled one of the first aid kits down from the Drop Ship wall, and brought it over. Mercer held up Hassan while the other Marine applied a compress dressing to Hassan’s damaged ear area.

“I guess you know now to just keep your mouth shut until I ask you something,” Mercer said with a grin. “You’re lucky you didn’t see what Jake did to your little dupes on the Earth Command council. I’d take you back to have a look, but my deck gunner buddy, Tim Dougherty, made it into a big pile of ash. You all won’t be having any meetings there any time soon. Uh oh, here comes Jake, my little man, and he don’t look happy.”

Hassan squinted up and watched as Jake’s imposing figure walked purposely towards him, with a shorter red haired Lieutenant beside him. Jake’s fists were clenched so tightly, the tendons stood out plainly through his uniform, almost mimicking the fury radiating from his face. He saw the bloody ear lying on the floor, and the new bandage added to Hassan’s head.

“It seems, General,” Jake observed coldly, “my men have been entertaining you properly.”

Dougherty brushed by Jake in a flash, and kicked Hassan under the chin so hard, his whole body lifted off the floor, before he crashed back down, unconscious. Mercer grabbed Dougherty, as he lifted his booted foot up over Hassan’s unmoving head.

“Easy, Tim,” Mercer said, as Dougherty turned on him. When he saw who it was holding him, the tension drained from him.

“Jesus, Charlie,” Tim whispered, staring back down at the Earth Command General’s body. “You…you just don’t know what this thing did to her.”

Jake stood over the body, staring down with a hate pulsing from him in almost tangible waves. “They wanted her to make a video disc, imploring me to come back and give myself up. She wouldn’t do it, even when Hassan had them burn her all over her body. They broke the bones in her fingers and arms, and still she refused.”

Jake looked up at his friends. “The President has ordered Hassan brought before him, and the Congressional leaders. We just received word from Jas on the Intrepid. They’re ecstatic about the operation at the former Earth Command. It was beamed live to the US, and Jas says the people are rejoicing all over. Even the President was taken aback by the reaction on the streets. When Tim blew the headquarters to kingdom come, America went wild.”

“Well, I guess it will be up to you now,” Mercer replied. “I never figured this prick had anything to say of any interest to us. Jack told me the US would like to know the location of some critical weapons caches, but I figure they can find out about them from someone else. If you all would have restrained yourselves for a moment, I could have let Mr. Snappy say a few words of encouragement to the General here, and he’d be telling us his life’s story.”

“Sorry,” Tim said sheepishly to Jake and Charlie. “I forgot about Mr. Snappy.”

Mercer took out the cylindrical device named Mr. Snappy, and polished it on his uniform tunic. “No harm done, Tim. We’ll just have to take the scenic route back to the US.”

Major Corey, the Executive Officer of the Intrepid, sat next to Colonel Jason Peters, her commanding officer. They piloted the Intrepid’s Alpha Drop Ship down to the landing zone near the congressional building in Washington DC. They were to accompany Jake, Mercer, Dougherty, and the rest of the Marines who had gone on the Earth Command Headquarters mission, into the House of Representatives, where they would present General Hassan. They had both visited with Adrian Byers-Matthews on board the Intrepid, and they were all agreed: Hassan would not live.

They looked out at the tens of thousands of people, waiting to greet them like celebrities. Amongst the sea of red, white, and blue waving flags of the United States, the two pilots chuckled and pointed to the thousands of Jake Matthews in the nest t-shirts. Shutting down the craft, they exited into the rear of the ship, where over a thousand Marines waited in dress uniforms to disembark. Near the rear exit hatch, Jake, Mercer, and Dougherty waited stiffly in their starched uniforms for the two pilots. Just in front of them, cringing at every movement Mercer made, was the Earth Command’s General Hakam Hassan.

“You look great, guys,” Corey stated emphatically.

“I was less nervous going down into the nest,” Mercer quipped.

Colonel Peters laughed, and walked over to the hatch control. “Shallwe?”

Jake nodded. “I guess we’re as ready as we ever will be.”

“I know my new bitch Hassy’s ready, right buddy?” Mercer said, putting a hand on the shaking General’s shoulder.

“I…I am ready,” Hassan whimpered. “I will do…I mean…I…”

“Shut up, asshole,” Dougherty snarled through clenched teeth. “It’s too bad we didn’t have a few more days to get here.”

Hassan immediately stood stock still without moving. Jake smiled at Dougherty. They had both stayed away from Hassan while Mercer retrained him. Dougherty’s attitude at being so close to Hassan, reflected Jake’s own feelings. Mercer had obtained everything the United States leaders had claimed to be interested in, and had it all outlined on a disc to give them. Mercer had wanted to let Hassan do a space walk without a suit; but the suggestion was vetoed reluctantly by Jake. Having given his word to bring Hassan before the President and Congress, Jake did not want to be responsible for showing up without him, and then be faced with an item of information they should have asked him.

Colonel Peters opened the hatch, and Jake held back with Mercer and Hassan, letting Peters, Corey, and Dougherty lead the other Marines off the ship as planned. The thousands thronged around the ship, and along the pathway, set up a virtual wall of sound as the giant vid screens showed Jake’s party disembark. Mercer pointed upwards to draw Jake’s attention to the vid screens as they exited the ship. Jake saw the crews taping the event had been waiting for them to come out, and close-ups of him and Mercer made the din of applause double. Mercer laughed and pointed at the tee shirts of Jake in the nest on Omaha, covered in chamber fluid, blowing the Queen’s head off.

Although the path to the Congressional building was lined with security people, some of the crowd would break through periodically, running up to Jake and Mercer, and shaking their hands. As Major Johnson had warned them, Jake and Mercer were the most recognized people on Earth right now. Some tried to get at General Hassan, who was infamous for his actions at Earth Command. Everyone in the country knew it had been Hassan, who had ordered the botched Bougainville mission. Jake and Mercer good-naturedly fended off the well-wishers’ attacks on their prisoner.

The relatively new Congressional building was the prototype of the former Earth Command Headquarters. The Marines were dismissed at the entrance by Major Johnson, who had been leading them, and they happily were enveloped by family and friends in the crowd. Johnson turned and gave a little wave to Jake, mouthing the words ‘good luck’ before walking over to embrace his family, a woman holding a little boy in her arms. Their escort led the rest of the landing party into the building, and on to the huge inner amphitheater, filled with members of the United States House of Representatives, and Senate. The only difference Jake could see from the Earth Command Headquarters was the huge gallery area, where thousands of citizens watched the meetings first hand, and were now on their feet cheering.

Jake, and his now small party, followed their guides down to the audio stage, which operated in the same manner as the Earth Command’s once did. The President, Vice President, and the respective leaders of the House of Representatives and Senate, were standing behind the lectern, applauding as loudly as the gallery. Jake, as well as the small group with him now, had been briefed by Major Johnson as to the identities of the leaders at the lectern.

President Miles Constantine was a man of average height, a bit portly around the waistline, and very dark of skin color. His clean-shaven face was split in a huge smile, which Jake could see carried to his eyes. Vice President Omar Shakir, although a full head taller than President Constantine, appeared to weigh about the same. He sported a full beard, and his jet black hair was combed straight back. The leader of the Senate, who Johnson referred to as the Senate Majority leader, seemed dwarfed by the larger men next to him. His graying hair framed a thin, tightlipped, pale face. Johnson had warned Jake to be careful of this diminutive man, named Rom Datskell. The leader of the House of Representatives, Nelson Rodrigues, or Speaker of the House, as Johnson had explained, was a jovial overweight man of above average height, who Jake liked instinctively.

President Constantine held up his hands finally for quiet.

“We welcome today a group of honest to God heroes, ladies and gentlemen,” Constantine intoned in a deep, base voice. “Please, General Matthews, introduce your group.”

“Thank you, Sir,” Jake replied. “My Chief of Staff, Charles Mercer, accompanied me on every mission, including the battle for Omaha long ago. I owe him my life.”

The gallery cheered wildly, as Mercer stepped forward and waved atthem.

“This gentleman,” Jake said, indicating Tim Dougherty, “is Lieutenant Tim Dougherty. He worked the Drop Ship turret gun, and Major Sara Corey, next to him, flew with me on every Drop Ship mission since I was a boot camp jarhead the first time on Omaha. Sara is now the Executive Officer of the Intrepid. They are the best of the best.”

After long moments of thunderous applause, with Dougherty and Corey waving self-consciously, Jake walked up next to Colonel Peters.