Well, here it is. The next part. Finally. Sorry it took so long, but work has been a nightmare. I hope to get the next part out quicker.
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Sandoval raised his head carefully, watching the Resistance members escape. It had been a calculated gamble, but it had worked. He'd gotten some information about his son from them- not a lot, but some. And this way, the only people who knew of his interest in one particular Resistance member were those in this Volunteer unit- whose discretion he could trust, though he wasn't about to trust them with the truth. He didn't want anyone on the mothership to know he was interested in one particular Resistance member and wonder why.
He hadn't originally planned to let the Resistance members go. But as he was walking toward the prisoners, he had noticed a flicker of movement in the trees and had immediately realized it was the Resistance, presumably back to see if there was a chance to rescue someone. They had been the perfect solution to the one problem in his scheme- how to keep others on the mothership from interrogating the prisoners and discovering what he had asked about. If the prisoners escaped, no one on the mothership could question them about his conversation with them. Additionally, a quiet corner of his mind added, my son was willing to risk his life for their freedom. Shouldn't I help him if he considered it that important? It was an idea he really didn't want to think about, as it only made his life more complicated, but it wouldn't go away.
And so, he had played a role- a role that made him sick to his stomach, not that the Resistance would likely believe that. He had no doubt that many of them thought him turned on by rape. Nothing could be further from the truth, but people tended to believe the worst of their enemies, particularly if given incentive. He'd also faked losing consciousness, because he didn't trust the Resistance not to shoot him while he was helpless. But they hadn't.
His acting had given him some very interesting bits of information. He had been right in his supposition- his son was a courier. Plus, with a name, even a codename, he could scan the database on the mothership for information. All information from prisoners was input there, and a search on a name would turn up any prisoners who had mentioned that name. The conversation he had overheard after pretending to lose consciousness indicated that he had been told his son's real codename, not a fake one. That's what he had thought, but confirmation was always a plus.
But the truly interesting piece of information was that Sandoval wasn't to be killed unless absolutely necessary. He hadn't heard much of that conversation, even with the CVI, but what he had heard confused him completely. Why did the Resistance have orders not to kill him? Considering that he was fairly certain Kincaid was Resistance, why didn't the Resistance want their spy as the head Companion Protector? It was a perfect position from their point of view. Did they not want to risk that sort of scrutiny of their highest ranked spy, or was there something more?
Did his son deliberately not shoot him because of the directive? No, he refused to believe that his son only missed him because he had been ordered to. But that brought up another interesting possibility- did his son have something to do with the no-kill directive? He didn't see how. He couldn't have ordered it himself. Sandoval couldn't imagine the Resistance leadership trusting his son enough to give him a high position in the organization, but maybe someone that cared about him was. Maybe the reason for the directive was so that his death wouldn't hurt his son- which implied…… what, exactly? That someone cared enough about his son to go against the best interests of the Resistance? But that would imply a number of Resistance members in their leadership knew about his son's relationship to him, which didn't seem likely. It just didn't make sense!
Still, his son was a courier, with access to high level information- so he was someone with access to the leadership. Maybe he was enough of an asset that they were willing to go along with his desire to not harm his father. That was the only possibility that made sense.
It didn't matter. There was too much else to do right now. The escaped prisoners had made it into the tree line almost a minute ago. It was time for him to get up. Groaning, he hefted himself up. The muscles in his arm twinged as he reached for his communicator, but he repressed the urge to wince. Thumbing his communicator on, he said, "Captain Porter, the prisoners have escaped. Get a shuttle up to track them before they get away."
"Yes, sir!" came the startled reply. After a few terse orders to the Volunteers, he asked, "Are you all right, sir? I'll have the medic over immediately."
"I'm fine," Sandoval said, brushing off any concern for his well-being. "They just knocked me out. I don't need the medic. What I need is for you to find the prisoners." He turned as he held a moan nearby. "Though the guards may need a medic. Better send him over." With that Sandoval switched off his communicator and headed toward the moan he had heard.
The first guard was clutching his head, but seemed all right otherwise. Since the other two guards had not made their presence known, they might still be unconscious. Sandoval grabbed the Volunteer's flashlight since it was now getting very dark. Thinking back to the location of the guards prior to the escape, Sandoval headed toward the location of the next nearest guard. With the flick of a switch, he turned the light on and began to run it over the ground.
He quickly found the next guard. His neck had been broken. Sandoval briefly felt a twinge of remorse that his plan had resulted in the death of one of the Volunteers- until he saw exactly who had been killed. Rolfson had been a brutal man. Although Sandoval had no proof, he suspected Rolfson to be responsible for several rapes of prisoners. But without evidence, he couldn't transfer Rolfson to a position away from the prisoners. And his brutality was a plus in battles with the Resistance.
Reaching down, Sandoval closed Rolfson's eyes before heading to the location of the last guard. By now, the medic had shown up and was treating the injured guard. A squad of Volunteers was heading towards the woods, presumably to try and catch the prisoners before they made it too far, but Sandoval was fairly certain they had already made it to a vehicle. The only way to catch them now would be to find their vehicle before it reached the main road. And the only way to do that was via shuttle, the engines of which Sandoval heard passing overhead. Unfortunately for the shuttle crew, the main road was not that far, and was heavily traveled.
Sandoval was relieved to find the final guard breathing when he nearly stumbled over him. As he called for help for the guard, Sandoval realized that this was another Volunteer he wouldn't have minded seeing dead- but then a lot of thugs and criminals joined the Volunteers. There was no way to weed them out, and they were an asset in dealing with the Resistance. The Taelons didn't care what crimes the Volunteers committed, so long as they obeyed orders.
Now that the last guard was accounted for, all that was needed was to secure the site, and he could go home- to think about what he had learned in privacy, and to wonder what his son would think of the report of the escaped prisoners if it ever made it to him.
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Richard Jacobson listened to the report of the escaped Resistance members in disbelief. He couldn't believe Sandoval had been that foolish, though it wasn't hard to imagine him being that twisted. But to order the guards away- was he just that eager to have some fun? And if that was his reasoning, why did he order the guards away? Did he just not want to share? He'd thought it was just a ruse to get some sort of tracker on one of the prisoners so they could find the rest of the cell, but the scans had all turned up empty. He shook his head, realizing that he would never understand Sandoval, and truthfully, glad of it.
But the most disturbing part of the entire situation was the questions Sandoval was asking. Why was he interested in Falcon? Did he realize Falcon was the Resistance's leader? Or was there something else? Was it just because he had almost managed to injure Sandoval? He didn't know, and in truth, it didn't matter. What mattered was informing Falcon that Sandoval was interested in him. Working as closely as Falcon did with Sandoval, Richard didn't think it would take much for Sandoval to connect Falcon with Liam Kincaid, particularly if they had the same wounds. Liam had to know that Sandoval had taken a personal interest in him.
He almost wished his people had disregarded the standing orders and killed Sandoval, but he realized that Liam must have had a good reason for issuing it. And despite everything Sandoval had done, his people had followed orders. That was a good thing to know, that these people could be trusted to do what they were told to.
"All right people, that's enough," he said to quiet down the group of people surrounding the escapees, congratulating them on their escape. "I want you to stay in the infirmary tonight. I need to contact someone, and I imagine he'll want to talk to you personally, so no wandering off!" he added with a slightly playful growl, happy his people had escaped.
The crowd resumed its normal dull roar the minute he stopped talking, and Richard just sighed. There was no way they were going to shut up anytime soon. He knew better than to expect that. With another heartfelt sigh, he pulled out his global and headed into a quieter room.
Glancing at his watch, he realized it was after midnight. Liam was probably in bed. With two full-time jobs, you slept when you could. He didn't want to wake Liam, but this couldn't wait.
He ducked his head into a disused room, making sure it was empty before stepping in and closing the door. Quietly he input the codes to connect him with Liam while simultaneously informing him it was a Resistance member. The call was re-routed through half a dozen different substations before reaching Liam.
Richard waited for almost a minute before a muffled, sleep-filled voice replied, "Yeah? What is it?" The screen remained blacked out, only the voice indicating the call had actually been answered. "It's Wolf, in Atlanta. The prisoners made it out."
Liam interrupted worriedly, asking, "Did you check them for bugs or tracers?"
"First thing I did. I don't know what's going on. Sandoval acted completely differently from normal. And the escapees say he was asking a lot of questions about you. Somehow you attracted his attention."
When there was no reply after almost thirty seconds, Richard asked, "Are you still there? Did you hear me?"
The voice sounded far more coherent now. "Yeah, I heard you. That's not good. I think I need to hear exactly what happened. Are you still at the backup site? I can be there in thirty minutes."
Richard shook his head. "It's too dangerous. I doubt you could get hold of a shuttle easily, and using the public portals would leave traces. With Sandoval already interested in you, that would be far too dangerous."
There was a sigh at the other end before Liam replied, "What about our portal system? Or was yours dismantled?"
With a sigh, Richard answered, "We started dismantling it before we they got back to us. We haven't had a chance to move it to a new location yet."
The Resistance had set up a series of portals connecting the major cities. The portals were in vacant apartments or deserted buildings with cars hidden nearby for the transportation of those exiting the portals. These portals were the way the couriers between cells got sensitive information from one cell to another. Unfortunately, since there was a chance that documents with the city's portal location might have survived the destruction of the base, the portal had been dismantled preparatory to moving it to a new location. But considering the length of time to set up the portal, and the exhaustion of the Resistance members, it wasn't a surprise that the portal wasn't back on line yet.
"All right, I'll just have to question them over the comm system. Can you set it up? I can't afford to wait until the portal's back up for this. It has to be done tonight."
"All right." Richard said slowly as he tried to figure out everything that he would need to do to make sure the call was as private as possible. "I'll give you a call in ten to fifteen minutes when we're set up. I'll make sure everyone nonessential is out of there when I call."
"I'll be waiting."