Slackers of the Inner Sphere
Chapter 28: The Great Game
Coogan's Bluff
Shoreham
Federated Commonwealth
4th October 3064
Swindelli sat looking up at the celling of his cell, mentally correcting the spelling mistakes in the graffiti that had been etched into the concrete. It wasn't long before he jet again found himself thinking back to the last time he'd been in a jail cell. It had been two days after his twenty-first birthday, just before he'd been forced to leave Cerillos and his family behind. He could still remember the look of utter disappointment on his fathers face when he had come to post bail for his eldest son.
It was during the drive back to the family ranch that they had had The Talk, although it had been the elder Swindelli who'd done all the talking, explaining that after what had happened, it wasn't safe for his son to remain anywhere even remotely near his home town, or maybe even on the world his ancestors had called their own since they had arrived from Terra hundreds of years before. Swindelli had found his bags already packed for him when he got home, with the house surprisingly empty. He had asked his father where his mother, brothers and sisters were, but the Old Man had simply said that it was better all round if they avoided a long, drawn out good bye.
Taking his bags and never looking back, Swindelli had driven his beat up old car for two days until he reached Cerillos City. He'd sold the junker, netting just enough cash to put a roof over his head for a few days while he tried to get his act together. But he was just one of hundreds of youngsters come into the big city from the outlying regions looking for a new start, and there hadn't been any jobs for the taking. Effectively destitute when his money ran out, he finally came across a recruiting centre. It had been closed for a long weekend, so he'd slept in the doorway, without food, until it opened.
He wasn't sure what he'd expected when he'd sat down in front of the Staff Sergeant, mumbling his way through the interview. The old NCO had seen through his lies easily enough, but a check proved that no serious charges had ever been pressed, and Swindelli passed the medical and physic exams and was duly recruited into the Free Worlds league military.
The sound of jangling keys brought his back to reality with a bump, and he looked up to see a young man in his late twenties or early thirties, dressed in civilian cloths but with a golden badge hanging from his belt, examining him through he bars.
"Major Swindelli, I presume?" The man asked, "I'm Detective Green; I was assigned to investigate what happened with you." He pressed his thumb against the reader next to the cell door, and it swung open, "There's something I want your opinion on."
With nothing to loose, Swindelli followed the cop out of the small cell-block and down a flight of stairs into what seemed to be a combination morgue and coroners office. Two further officers in full riot gear stood guard outside the examination room, each holding an oversized combat shotgun like they were expecting trouble. The clinical stench of bleach and preservatives assaulted Swindelli's nose as Green opened the door and ushered him through. The chill in the room hit Swindelli with a near physical force, but it didn't seem to affect the elderly looking man in a white lab-coat who stood leaning against an examination table, a white sheet covering a body.
"Dr Lowe here is our chief forensic pathologist and a veteran of the Clan War." Green explained, "But even he's never seen anything like this. Doc?"
Lowe pulled back the sheet to reveal Valentine's naked body. Most of right side of her head was missing, but her angelic face was strangle untouched. Several incisions had been made on her body, and Swindelli could see the glint of metal and other unnatural additions to her physiology.
"I have never, in all my years, seen anything like this." Lowe shook his head as he pulled a laser pointer out of his coat pocket and switched it on, "I've read about some of these implants, but normally in the experimental or hypothetical sections of medical journals. Part of her skeleton has been coated in some kind of ceramic compound with amazing tensile strength, while protein complex has been injected intramuscularly, increasing tissue density and probably decreasing lactate recovery time, meaning that she wouldn't have grown tired as quickly as you or I. Also evidence that her they attempted to increase the blood flow to her eyes, probably in an attempt to increase her night vision. I also found the working of a hold-out laser in her forearm, the firing control linked directly into her nervous system."
"And that's not the strangest part." Green stood with his arms folded across his chest, "In the past two days I've received multiple calls from both the ComStar HPG station in Lancing and from someone claiming to represent Word of Black, each wanting to claim this body. Now we're a small town; not use to dealing with this kind of goings on. Perhaps you can enlighten us."
"If there was anything I could tell you, I would." Swindelli tasted biol rising in the back of his throat, "I thought she was hitting on me until she started just hitting me. Hell, she took half a dozen rounds from my gun and shrugged them off like they were nothing."
"Any idea who killed her?" The Detective asked.
"Haven't a clue, but if I did, I'd buy them a drink; they saved my life." Swindelli admitted, "What did they use?"
"That's the other interesting part." Lowe held up a specimen jar; a deformed sphere of brushed metal rolled around in the bottom, "We pulled this out of a warehouse wall; chemical test showed no signs of explosive residue, but further tests show that it had been subject to strong magnetic fields."
"A gauss rifle?" Swindelli blinked, "I didn't know they make them that small?"
"Not according to anyone I've spoken to." Green shook his head, "No ones built a weapon like that since the time of the Star League. Oh, sure, maybe the Clans or ComStar might be able to, but why would they get involved?"
"That, Detective, is the 64,000 C-Bill question." Swindelli sucked in a breath through his teeth, "Look, as much fun as this has been, are you going to charge me or what? Because I've still got a job to do, and I'd really like to get off of this planet as soon as humanly possible."
"I've nothing to charge you with; all the evidence supports your story that you were attacked." Green shrugged, "Truth is, I'm getting pressure from above to close and sweep it under the rug. I don't care about the Civil War, just how it affects the people in this town. And if having you and your friends around makes life around here that little more difficult, then I want you gone."
JumpShip L. Ron Hubbard
Zenith Jump Point
Shoreham system
Federated Commonwealth
4th October 3064
"I hate these Mercenaries." Jamal sat in his chair, staring into the darkness of space on the other side of the view port, "I should never have let them get this far; I should have crushed them as soon as we first caught up with them."
"With all due respect, sir, that wouldn't have been possible without drawing untoward attention from Terra." Hawksmoor stood near the observation lounge hatch, "As it is, out agents last report seems to indicate that someone else within our organisation has begun to take an interest."
"The Manei Domini, you mean?" The Precenter cocked his head to one side, "Yes, that was unexpected, wasn't it? Do we have any information as to who was behind that?"
"None at this time, but what we do know indicates that the unit was already in place on Shoreham before the arrival of the Mercenaries." Hawksmoor pulled a small computer uplink from her tunic pocket and opened the relevant file, "I have our people looking into it, trying to decipher who activated it."
"I've never trusted Manei Domini, especially the girls." Jamal pulled his knees up to his chest and put his arms around them protectively, "Girls have soft bits. Manei Domini shouldn't have soft bits. They should have hard bits; muscles and stuff. I have hard bits."
"Yes, sir." Hawksmoor rolled her eyes, realising it was going to be one of those days, when most of her time was spent taking care of her superior.
"I do; lots of them." Jamal started to cry, "I think I'm having a nervous breakdown."
"Yes sir." Hawksmoor pulled a syringe out of her pocket and started to advance on her boss, "This'll make you feel better, sir."
Coogan's Bluff
Shoreham
Federated Commonwealth
4th October 3064
Kerensky was waiting outside of the police station when Swindelli was released, and fell in step beside his CO as they made their way down Main Street.
"Anything I need to know?" The Major asked.
"Word of Blake have bought out a stake in the Vital Spark, forcing Captain Handy to break off his contact with us." Kerensky explained, "They tried the same with the Bulldog, but someone beat them to it. We do not know at this time who that was, but Kobayashi suspects our employers."
"Not their style." Swindelli shook his head as they stopped outside a coffee shop, "No, something else is going on here; I was attacked by a Manei Domini, a Blakist cyborg. I know that they're after us, but this is a major escalation in their methods."
"Then who hired this bounty hunter, this Lizard, Colonel LaFollett warned us of?"
"If they even exist, and they're not just something LaFollett made up, then that could still be Fenner." Swindelli held open the door and ushered Kerensky inside, "No, there's more than one person or group of people out to get us, and I have a bad feeling that things are going to get worse before they get better."
Unknown Location
4th October 3064
"The situation is progressing as planned?"
"Almost; it is, after all, hard to predict just how people will react, but within the guidelines of our plan."
"You have identified all the new players?"
"The information is all in the report. It should make, interesting reading."
"Very good, but try and remember that this is not a game; if anyone outside of our organisation was ever to learn the truth..."
"We're fully insulated; I have implemented more than double the usual number of cut-outs, implicating the usual suspects and a few red herrings to confuse any investigations."
"The others are still worried that you are treating this all too lightly. Too much is at stake to risk so much without taking proper precautions."
"If they are so worried, then I invite the council to examine my records; I have have nothing to hide."
"Make sure you keep it that way; we are all of us, after all, expendable, even you and I."
To Be Continued...
The Slackers of the Inner Sphere:
Saving the universe by blowing up large parts of it.
