Battle Group Castle
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I own zero Castle. Rating: K Time: In an AU future and see below.
Author's note: This is a sequel to Vengeance and to Tercio Corazon Negro.
When they finally got back to Harmony City, Castle went to his rear command post on Pill Hill. He had been radioed that reinforcements and more equipment had arrived and need to talk to his staff, Colonel Esposito, and General Hughes.
Kate decided to see how Alexis was doing. She had no real function in Castle's battle group or anyplace else on Harmony, really. Sergeant Major Saava told Kate that the redhead was The Barn, an abandoned warehouse that had been turned into a recreation center for all of the troops on Harmony.
"I'll accompany you, if you don't mind, Captain. I saw some of the Tarkai recruits headed that way. I'd like to see if there's anyone there I know."
Alexis was seated at a table by herself, looking at the young men, and not so young men, entering. One walked past her and her head snapped around. It couldn't be. She thought.
"Tyson!" She yelled, jumping to her feet. "What the hell are you doing here.
The man spun around, a shocked look on his face. "You're wrong. My name in Michael Thibodeau." He walked towards her.
"Like hell! You're Jerry Tyson and you damned well ought to be dead." As he advanced, she backed away.
Tyson grabbed a fork off of a table and ran at her. She grabbed a two-gallon jug of coffee and threw the contents at Tyson. He swung the fork at her, but blinded by the coffee, he jabbed the fork into her shoulder. Alexis swung the empty jug at his head. She began yelling for help.
Several NCOs, attracted by the fight, closed in rapidly, but only the Tarkai were armed, and then only with the long, double edged knife that was a traditional weapon of the Tarkais.
Seeing he was outnumbered, Tyson fled through one of the many doors of The Barn. As he left, Kate and Saava entered by another door.
"What the hell is going on here?" Kate barked.
"Jerry Tyson. He was here. He tried to stab me with a damned fork."
"He did stab you." Kate said, gesturing to the fork sticking in her shoulder. "Send for a medic." She yelled.
"Who is this Tyson?" Saava asked
"Jerry Tyson was part of my personal protection team back on Earth. When Senator Daley was assassinated, I thought there might have been a mole in my unit. But, according to the word Alexis and I got, all of my people were executed for treason. Tyson must have been the mole."
"We'll go after him." Saava said.
"He has too much of a head start." Kate said angrily.
Saava laughed. "He reeks of your human coffee. A cub could track him down." Saava quickly gathered up two NCOs who had pistols and a half a dozen Tarkai who were armed with their long knives.
They followed Tyson out of The Barn and found a group of soldiers, staring at an abandoned warehouse. One soldier was picking himself up off the ground.
"A man ran through here. Which way did he go?" Saava barked.
"There were two of them, Sergeant major." Said a Tarkai.
"Was one chasing the other?" Kate demanded.
"No. They were running together. They went into the old warehouse."
"Shit." Kate said. "The damned place is crammed with all sorts of marginally useful stuff. He could hide forever."
Saava laughed. "No. Aside from some holes in the roof and one hole in the south wall about twenty meters up, the only way out is the way he came in." He turned to the soldiers. "Get to the front of the warehouse and make sure no one, no one but us, comes back out. You!" He pointed at a Corporal in the Tercio. "Find a radio or phone and contact headquarters. Get some properly armed troops here. We'll go in after those two, but Captain Beckett, I think you should stay here."
"Not a chance in hell, Saava. I want him. Besides, I know what he looks like."
Knowing the futility of arguing with Captain Beckett, Saava began jogging towards the warehouse.
"I suggest we go in in teams of two. That way, we won't be outnumbered if they attack. Captain, would you be so kind as to allow me to accompany you?"
Kate grinned. "I wouldn't want anyone else."
The groups of two split up and began searching the building. Kate, and the two NCOs with sidearms, each went with a Tarkai who was armed with a knife. The other Tarkai were just as happy. Although not as well armed as the humans, they had spent a lifetime hunting and fighting on Tark. They moved more quickly and more quietly than humans.
They found the warehouse was indeed jammed with junk, or at least things of no current utility. There were only narrow pathways to move through.
Saava sniffed quietly. "I believe he went to the right." He whispered.
Kate nodded and moved to the right at the next walkway.
Saava stopped and looked around, a puzzled look on his face. "Near." He mouthed.
They moved very slowly through the piles and heaps of equipment. Kate could feel sweat beading on her forehead and dripping down into her eyes. She wiped it away. She wondered if Tyson had a pistol or some other weapon on him. Mercenaries often carried their own weapons. Even in a unit as well equipped as Battle Group Castle, no one would think it odd if Tyson carried a back-up pistol.
Saava yelled, but it was too late. An avalanche of junk poured down on them. Saava was buried and Kate was knocked to the ground, losing her pistol. She heard Tyson land behind her and tried to whirl. She was too slow. Tyson punched her in the kidney several times, then wrapped his hands around his neck.
"You're going to die, bitch." He grunted.
Kate drove her boot down onto his foot. Once. Twice. Three times. He grunted in pain each time. Then she slammed her elbow into his mid-section. His grip loosened and she kicked back at his knee. It wasn't a hard kick, but she wriggled out of his grasp. She backed up and took a deep breath.
"You won't get away." He said with a grin.
"Neither will you."
He shrugged. "It doesn't matter. What matters is that you'll be dead. My partner will have no trouble with the redheaded whore."
Kate threw an overhand blow at his head, but he blocked it. But, as he did, she kicked him in the left knee. Hard. She heard a satisfying crunch and he bent over.
"You always were a sucker for that move, Jerry." She taunted.
He hobbled forward and she skipped backwards. At her feet was a wooden pole, some four inches around and three feet long. She grabbed it and as he hobbled forward, she swung it. He raised his hand to protect his head and she heard a bone break. And there, where the pole had been was her pistol. She grabbed it and covered him.
"Go ahead. I'm not afraid to die for my cause." He yelled.
"Not today." She said and shot him in the left foot. He toppled over. As he did, Saava kicked and clawed his way out of the mess that had fallen on him.
"Are you all right, Captain?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" She said, winking at him.
In seconds, more solders arrived and hauled Tyson off.
Next to arrive was her husband.
"Don't ever do that again." He said, pulling her into a hug.
"Certainly. Although I don't think Tyson will ever fight anyone again."
He kissed her. "You know what I mean."
She batted her eyes at him. "Why, Colonel Castle, I have no idea what you mean. Could you explain it to me later tonight?"
He laughed.
The next day they both went to the intelligence office to see how the interrogation of Tyson was going.
Sergeant Woods, their chief interrogator, briefed them.
"We won't get much out of him. He's a true believer. Thinks the US should run Earth, Earth should run the Core, and the Core should run all of human space. I doubt he knows much. His kind aren't privy to the high command's decisions. He'll know just enough to do his job and no more."
"So, more interrogation is no use?" Castle asked.
"I wouldn't say that. We found some false papers sewn into his boot, identifying him as a local. He also had a buddy who used a rope to shinny down the hole in the south wall. He'll have gone to ground in the city somewhere."
"I don't like enhanced interrogation techniques." Castle said.
"Nor do I." Woods replied. "You put a man in enough pain and he'll say anything to stop the pain. Even if he doesn't know anything. Especially if he doesn't know anything. But, we still have some joy juice around here. We'll use that on him."
"Joy juice?" Kate asked.
"A narcotic from somewhere in the Latin Worlds, ma'am. Lowers your inhibitions and makes everyone your best friend. With a good interrogator, and I'm a good interrogator, you can get all you want and more."
Jerry Tyson talked for three days. He was helped to talk by joy juice and kept awake with more drugs. Ninety percent of what he said was useless to them, but the ten percent that was useful was very useful.
Castle went over the intelligence report with his staff and commanders.
"Tyson's partner is one Cedric Marks, or at least that's the name he usually uses. He's a former Triple Alliance soldier who decided to go into business for himself. We have Marks' ID data from his enlistment papers with us, but that might not do much good with someone like Marks. He's very, very good."
"So, we have nothing?" Someone asked.
"We have something. Marks' and Tyson's contact is a local hooker, Scarlett Price. And Price's pimp, a man who goes by Mr. Ji. Price was a local college girl until the pirates landed. They took her as a sex slave. Since she was very beautiful, they used her a lot and got her hooked on all sorts of drugs to keep her cooperative. By the time we got here, her family and friends were either dead or had been shipped off planet as slaves. We don't know where her crib is, but we know where she hangs out in the local red-light district. The local police are picking her up as we speak. Given how badly the city has been damaged, there are an awful lot of people reduced to begging or selling themselves, stealing and other crimes. The local police try to get them clean and sober, offer them low wage jobs, which is about all there is, and try to get them straight. Usually it doesn't work. Marks and Price's pimp won't think it's odd that she got picked up."
An NCO stuck his head in the door. "Good news. They picked up Price, no problem, but she had just turned a couple of tricks and had gotten high. The police have her in the tank to settle down, but her phone contains the name and address of Mr. Ji."
Castle smiled coldly. "Are we ready to go?"
TBC