THE PRIZE: BOOK TWO - RETRIBUTION (22 page)

Penn smiled. “Right, and he wouldn’t hit the alarm button before he, or someone went out to check.” Gunny Keton grinned, thinking of the shit that would come down on anyone’s head if it was a false alarm, especially from guys trying to get some rest.

“So, we have to locate the entry port.” Gunny Keton keyed his comm.

“Hot Pants. Fly the bumblebee around and find the entry port for the guards.” He whispered.

“Hot Pants?” Penn asked in surprise.

“Maybe you didn’t notice in the general confusion, but three of our team are female, sir.”

“Guess I’m more distracted than I realized. Three you say?”

“Yeah. Hot Pants, Jugs, and Honey Buns.”

“Oh, I just bet they love those nicknames.”

“Well, sir. They picked them, not us.” Weatherly chuckled.

“Just let someone outside the team call them that and see what happens.”

“A painful introduction to politically correct forms of address I take it.”

“Either them, or one of the team members, sir.” Just then, Hot Pants whispered she’d found the entry port and Penn saw the icon pop up in his HUD.

“Heads up,” Weatherly announced, “space yourselves out around the perimeter and pick your target. You only have one shot and one shot only. All ten guards have to go down at the same time, on my mark. Chopper and I will cover the entry port to cover ‘Golden Eyes’ entry and take out any additional bad guys that come out.”

“It’s all yours, Skipper.” Penn took one last look at the video feed of the entry port and slipped out from under the poncho.

“I’ll signal you with three clicks when I’m in position, Lt.”

Switching back to the video feed in their HUD’s from the bumblebees, Weatherly and Keton watched Penn snake his way over the top of the rise. They weren’t too surprised when he vanished from view, even from infrared.

“Well, there he goes.”

“Shit! Weatherly swore very softly. “How the hell are we supposed to keep up with him if we can’t track him.”

“If we can’t, neither can the bad guys. He’ll signal us when he’s ready.”

“I hope you’re right. I’d really, really hate to go back and tell the General that the Boss bought it.”

“Don’t even think that! Shit! If that happened we’d all be in deep shit.”

“In more ways than one, Gunny. Without him I think it would all fall apart.”

“Meaning no disrespect, sir. But wasn’t it a bit stupid of him to go in by himself?” Weatherly turn his head and looked at the Gunnery Sergeant.

“That’s right, you guys don’t know. The reason he’s going in there is to rescue Colonel Ellis - his wife.”

“When he said it was personal, I thought he meant something else. Now I double wish he’d let us go with him.”

“One thing you’d better understand about our Boss. He goes where he wants, does what he wants, whenever he wants, and the only damned person on this, and probably any other planet who can change his mind is the person he’s risking his life to rescue.”

Chapter Thirteen

Hideout

Out of reflex more than anything else, Penn automatically lowered his body temperature as he snaked his way over the rise, feeling out with his senses, both electronic and human. Undoubtedly, the place was littered with AP mines, but after all this time it was a guess as to how many remained active. He wasn’t sure if the sense was something the genetic engineers had given him, or something Michael had added, but either way he was thankful he had it and could ‘see’ the minefield stretched out around him. A mini crater was the first indication he’d reached the minefield, as something had triggered this one. Probably a deer, or bear, as anything smaller and lighter would have walked right over it. Something impinged on his senses just to the right of his chosen path, and guessing it was another mine he carefully moved around it. Without digging it up, he had no way of knowing if it had a sensor unit attached like the Imperial AP mines. Those were proximity as well as contact, and acted as an anti-tampering system to prevent mine clearing teams from disarming them. A spider web of wires ran under the grass, which also suggested that some of them were command detonated as an added precaution. If you used demo tape to clear a path through the mines, the deeper controlled mines would get you once you started down the supposedly cleared path.

In all it took him an hour to snake his way through the minefield, but he had all night to do what needed to be done. Tripping some unsuspected sensor, or alarm would send the place into lockdown and make it impossible for him to sneak his way in. That meant a major assault, and risked injuring, or even killing Ellis. It was a safe bet that this place was built to stop or prevent anyone breaching their way in, and even if they did, it would take weeks, or even months to fight their way down to the lower levels. On top of that, escape tunnels weren’t out of the question. This was the best way in, and didn’t entail getting a lot of good soldiers killed fighting their way down, only to find the inhabitants long gone when they got there. Penn made it to the base of the twenty-foot high concrete wall, delicately feeling the surface. The cold concrete felt smooth to the touch and there were no indications they’d buried sensors in the surface. Having been built before the invasion, that bit of Imperial tech hadn’t been available at the time. It was the top of the wall he was more concerned with. Here at least they could have embedded Imperial tech once it became available, but he’d run into that before, so it wasn’t a big problem. With his back to the wall, Penn slipped sideways until he reached the massive corner post. On top would be the mini flechette cannon sunk into the concrete, and either command or sensor activated. The trick was not to trip the sensors, or be seen. Pulling off his outer gloves and knee covers, he tested the gecko skin cammo suit layer on the wall, lifting himself off the ground with ease. Moving around to the outer face of the corner post, Penn slowly climbed the face of the wall like some giant spider, or lizard. Unbeknownst to most people there is a small blind spot in the sensor field atop most walls with weapons emplacements, and that is right where the weapon itself is embedded. The trick would be to come up directly on top of the weapon dome. Done slowly enough, the sensors would think he was part of the weapon. Reaching the top of the wall, Penn chinned himself up until could see along both walls. Sure enough, the flechette cannon was now recessed into its weatherproof casing, and he could sense as well as see the sensor nodes along the top of the wall. Now came the tricky part, but thankfully the place wasn’t flood lit so as not to draw attention to itself, so he didn’t have to worry about a sharp-eyed guard spotting him, forgetting for a moment that with his cammo suit they could be standing next to him and still not see him. Inch by inch, Penn pulled himself up and over the dome. He froze for a moment when the dome started rotating back and forth under his belly, as if seeking a target. Even if it deployed right now, it still couldn’t hurt him, at least this one couldn’t. That wasn’t to say one of the others on the next section of wall couldn’t range on him. Apparently satisfied that there wasn’t a threat, the dome stopped moving. Head first, Penn snaked over the wall and down the other side until he lay in deep shadow at the base of the wall.

From the outside, this place looked like some well-protected country estate with a small house, lots of gardens, a pool, tennis court, and patios. The odd part was that it had no driveway or gate for visitors. The only way in or out was by air, not unusual. The raised patios around the house gave the patrolling guards a commanding view of the garden. Without lights, it was easy to snake his way across the garden from shadow to shadow. Even so, he froze and prepared to fight as an Esterian guard strolled by. Even with their bulky night vision head sets, he doubted they’d see him, but he wasn’t taking any chances at this point. The guard went on his way, and as he turned the corner, Penn made a short dash to the wall and began scaling it before the next guard came around the far corner. By the time he reached a position below Penn, he was halfway up the wall, clinging like a fly. Like most humanoid species, few ever looked up above their line of vision unless something drew their attention. Penn used that unconscious blind spot to his advantage, but waited until the guard walked by before moving, as one thing he wasn’t was soundless. Sometimes the slightest sound will cause a person to look up, not that he would see much, just a dark shadow on an equally dark wall. As the guard passed, Penn heard a slight buzzing sound just at the lower threshold of his hearing and looked around. A fat bumblebee hung in the air facing him, and he smiled for the camera, even knowing they couldn’t see him.

“Is that him?” the Lt asked.

“Holy shit, he’s already at the building.” Hot Pants muttered. “I don’t know, for sure Lt, as it’s nothing more than a darker shadow on the wall, but I’m betting it’s him”

“Heads up people, ‘Golden Eye’ has reached the building, so stop playing with yourselves and get ready. See if you can keep track of him, Hot Pants.”

“That is one hard sucker to follow Gunny. It’s like trying to follow a fart in a thunderstorm.” That brought a few chuckles over the tac net.

“Don’t let the boss hear you say he’s a fart, girl.”

“What… no I didn’t… you wouldn’t…” She spluttered until she saw the grin on the Gunny’s face. “Right, not that I’d think he’d care, mind you, he seems like a cool guy.”

“He is from what I’ve seen and heard.”

“He’s made it to the entry portal… he’s gone down the wall and is hanging over the doorway.” Just then everyone heard the three clicks over the radio.

“All team members. Lock and load - pick your target and signal when ready.” Weatherly whispered. One by one all ten team members clicked in as he and Gunny Keton sighted on their respective targets.

“On my count of three. Three - two - one - fire.”

Other than some lonely cricket, chirping in some nearby bushes, the night remained perfectly still and quiet, as not even the sound of ten bodies slumping to the ground reached them. Spaced around the building, ten darker splotches flowed down the wall, slowly coming to a stop as the yellowish red blood, and gray matter cooled. Even as their targets dropped Weatherly and Keton sighted on the door, but it was several minutes before it opened and a human walked out. Even through the electronic scope, they could see he was pissed off about something, but he didn’t seem alarmed. In the light spilling out the open doorway, they both saw a slight shimmer scuttle down the wall and swing inside. The moment Penn’s feet touched the ground he closed the door.

“I’ve got him, Gunny.” Weatherly muttered as he squeezed the trigger. Other than a slight hiss, the round discharging down the barrel made no sound. The man dropped, no longer pissed off about anything.

“Now we wait.”

“That’s gonna be the hardest part, Lt.”

“Don’t you know it.”

As a precaution, Penn closed the door and changed the lock’s entry code, and relayed it to Weatherly, wanting to leave an avenue of attack for the strike team behind him. He stood in a well-lit passageway of bare concrete. Half way down another door opened, with soft music coming from inside. Another door, steel this time, barred his progress. The overhead light strips made him feel a little naked, even under cammo, and in three quick steps, he was outside the first door. A quick look inside showed one man sitting in front of a control panel and a row of screens, typing something into his console. As he suspected, they were monitoring the perimeter, as the large screen on the end wall showed the complete layout of the bunker and the location of all the mines and weapon emplacements around it. That would have to go down, just in case he had to make a fast exit. This wasn’t the time to do anything fancy, and pulling the stun rod he took three quick, silent steps into the room and zapped the man at the base of his neck. Snap-ties seconded for restraints, wrists and ankles, then zip tying them together. Even if the man did wake up early, there was no way he was going to sound the alarm in that position. The control board was simple, and in a matter of seconds, all the outside defenses came down.

“Golden Eye to strike team.”

“Strike team leader, go.”

“All defenses down. Move in and secure the perimeter. Watch out for the mines, you have the code for the front door.”

“Copy that, Golden Eye on our way.”

A power junction caught Penn’s eye, and he debated pulling the plug for a moment. If the lights went out, would it trip some alarms? The main control consol was easy to disable by simply cutting the power cord and ripping out the cable. That way no one could do a quick fix and power the control board back up. With a sigh, Penn opened the cover over the main buss and fired a blaster bolt in it. The buss blew with an impressive shower of blue and white sparks, plunging him into darkness.

“Yes, that’s much better. Now I can go to work.” He muttered.

The steel door at the end of the passageway proved to be unlocked, so he didn’t need to blow his way through it. Beyond, a flight of stairs led down into darkness, and other than the emergency lights on each landing, this was the perfect environment for him to operate in. Apparently, the management didn’t believe in providing an elevator for the working people. Now that the lights were off, someone was getting interested, as several people were making their way up the stairwell. Standing in the shadows, Penn waited until the first pair reached the last landing below him before leaping off. With a knife in each hand, he landed between the two men, sweeping the blades up and across their throats, and ducked out of the way of the spurting blood. Almost without pausing, he sheathed the knives and quickly climbed the wall to hang in the shadows until the second pair arrived. They didn’t last any longer than the first pair, landing on them with enough force to drive them to the floor. After that, it was a simple matter of dispatching both, but he wasn’t finished with them yet. One by one, he dropped all four down the stairwell, hearing shocked outrage from the men coming up from below. Even before the next pair came into view of this landing, Penn leapt over the rail and plummeted down, hearing the guards start running back down the stairwell.